Monitoring Desk
GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday said it was taking advantage of a post-earthquake pause in sanctions to move badly needed health supplies and equipment into war-torn Syria.
The WHO said it was capitalizing on the chance brought about by suspending sanctions to carry out some rapid procurement and revitalize Syria’s shattered health services.
WHO called on Syria’s warring factions to utilize the earthquake as an opportunity to end the ongoing civil war.
The deadliest tremor on February 6 has killed over 42,000 people in Turkiyey and over 3,600 in Syria, while the UN health agency said about 125,000 people had been injured.
Damascus has been hit by over a decade of economic sanctions, and while they were not designed to impede aid, some blamed them for the slow arrival of aid after the quake.
The United States (US) has since temporarily lifted some sanctions to ensure aid supply as quickly as possible to those affected areas.
WHO rapidly supplying aid to quake-hit areas
“Together with our partners, WHO is moving very rapidly right now to take advantage of this pause in the sanctions,” the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean regional emergency director, Richard Brennan, told a press conference.
“We have already started ordering supplies and equipment, and we are working with UN partners on a collective approach to take advantage of the sanctions pause,” he said from Gaziantep in southern Turkiye, having returned from northern Syria.
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Medicines, X-ray machines, vaccines, and surgical tools were needed, he said.
“We will be moving rapidly to procure, capitalizing on this crucial opportunity.”
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged the warring factions to use the earthquake as an opportunity to come together and resolve the ongoing civil war.
