The Syrian government prevented the UN's reaction to the earthquake in places where there was resistance

 

Middle East Eye has learned that the Syrian government prevented the deployment of foreign emergency response teams to opposition-held regions following the terrible earthquake that struck the country in February.

In addition, UN officials have been accused of negligence following an investigation by the Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (Siraj) and MEE. According to critics, UN officials disregarded procedures and guidelines that should have allowed them to send in rescue teams for humanitarian reasons even without the government's permission.

A significant portion of southern Turkey and northwest Syria experienced extensive devastation as a result of the earthquake on February 6.

According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), the opposition-held enclave in Syria, which includes Idlib and portions of Aleppo province, was the most severely affected area. There, at least 4,191 people were murdered.

According to SNHR, the death toll in regions under government control was at least 394, with the majority of those fatalities recorded in the town of Jableh in the province of Latakia.

Even more reports place the number of deaths in Syria. Siraj was informed by a UN representative that at least 6,000 people had perished there. 7,259 verified deaths in Syria, according to the International Medical Corps, were reported in April.

The opposition-held territory was already in a humanitarian catastrophe after more than ten years of fighting; it had a population of 4.6 million that had been enlarged by individuals who had been forced to flee other regions due to the conflict, and relief delivery had long been limited to a single border crossing from Turkey.

Video shows White Helmets volunteers and others frantically sifting through the wreckage with their hands and simple instruments in search of survivors, exposing the absence of specialized tools and the unplanned nature of the rescue operation.

Ahmad Yaziji, a member of the Idlib branch of the Syria Civil Defence, recalled how he transferred his three kids from the home to the car after the earthquake and was separated from them for five days.

A few other volunteers went beyond the evacuation zones to bury their loved ones before hurriedly coming back to help. There were so many places under the debris where individuals were still alive and imprisoned.