A Russia UN veto on aid for Syria’s Idlib would be deadly

If the UNSC does not pass a resolution extending aid transfer to northwest Syria, millions will face famine and disease.

Only a few days separate us from an upcoming UN Security Council meeting which will discuss the authorisation of aid delivery to northwest Syria. First outlined in UN Resolution 2165 of 2014, this mechanism allows for the delivery of aid to territories under the control of Syrian opposition groups through crossings on the Turkish-Syrian border. The resolution’s authorisation has to be renewed every year and the current one, which allows for aid shipments only through Bab al-Hawa crossing, expires in July. The crossing serves as the humanitarian community’s gateway into Idlib and north Aleppo provinces. Currently, the area is home to some 4 million Syrians, most of them displaced by years of civil and proxy war and the recent advance of the Syrian regime and its allies on rebel-held areas. Since 2014, when the resolution was passed, aid agencies have struggled to provide for the ever-increasing population of displaced people. Nevertheless, every year they have managed to distribute tens of thousands of metric tonnes of food, medical supplies, tents and other necessities to sustain the displaced people.