UNICEF Would Like Personnel In Northwest Syria To Avoid Sending Aid Via Turkey - Official

RIYADH (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2020) UNICEF would ideally like to have personnel on the ground in northwest Syria as right now the fund sends its aid via Turkey to the partners there, UNICEF middle East and North Africa regional communications chief Juliette Touma told Sputnik.

"We do not have personnel on the ground in the northwest. And certainly, not in Idlib... It would have been ideal if the United Nations was present on the ground," Touma said on the sidelines of the 2nd Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum. "To overcome this restriction we have been sending supplies, lifesaving assistance... via Turkey.

UNICEF, she added, sends aid to humanitarian partners working on the ground in the area who distribute the material and the assistance and the supplies to the families in need.

"We are always trying to find ways to reach children because what's important is to deliver assistance to every child in need, wherever they are in Syria," Touma said.

The lifesaving assistance UNICEF delivers, she added, includes vaccines against diseases like polio and the measles because a number of these children may have missed on a routine vaccination.

"So, it's absolutely critical that we vaccinate children wherever they are in the country, but especially in the northwest, because the likelihood of them missing out is very high," Touma said.

UNICEF wants to prevent diseases from spreading because "diseases don't know borders, they don't know checkpoints," she said. So it is absolutely critical to control the spread with lifesaving vaccinations, clean water and hygiene kits, the UNICEF official said.

Touma said hygiene kits contain soap, which is absolutely critical, and the coronavirus crisis makes it doubly important. The kits also include toothpaste, sanitary tabs for women and girls for menstruation, towels, and detergent, among other important supplies.

"We have also been sending the warm clothes for children because the winters have been exceptionally, exceptionally harsh this year with temperatures dropping below zero," Touma said. "We also give them dry cans so that people can go and collect their water."

UNICEF does malnutrition screenings and provides nutrients to mothers - especially mothers who have just given birth - pregnant women and young children, the spokesperson said.

On February 17, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock stated that roughly 900,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in northwest Syria since the start of December.

Syrian government forces have launched an offensive in the Idlib province to recapture pockets of the region controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist organization (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia). Violence in the region has increased amid tit-for-tat strikes between government troops and Turkish units that maintain observation posts in northwest Syria.