First UN aid convoy enters quake-hit Syria via new crossing

BBC News:

The first UN aid convoy has entered through a reopened border crossing into rebel-held north-western Syria, devastated by last week’s earthquake.

The UN said 11 lorries crossed from Turkey at Bab al-Salameh on Tuesday.

Many Syrians are angry over the lack of aid for the war-torn nation especially to rebel areas, after last week’s quakes in which more than 41,000 are known to have died in Turkey and Syria.

The UN and Syria’s government on Monday agreed to use two more crossings.

The other one is at al-Rai, also on the Turkish border. The UN said the crossings would initially be open for three months.

Two powerful earthquakes struck the south-eastern regions of neighbouring Turkey on 6 February early in the morning, when many people were asleep.

Hopes of finding any more survivors are fading.

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Countries with friendly relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, began flying supplies to government-controlled areas of Syria soon after the tremor.

But the opposition-controlled north-west – where some 4.1 million people were relying on humanitarian assistance to survive even before the disaster – received no aid deliveries from the UN via Turkey until Thursday.