Dozens Of Syrian Aid Groups Suspend Cooperation With UN

Sep 19, 2016, 00:43

This is "a first step in response to the political influence of the Syrian government and the inaction of United Nations agencies and other humanitarian actors based in Damascus", the letter said.

A total 73 groups signed the letter to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that also demanded an investigation of UN agencies' work in Syria.

Dozens of humanitarian aid organizations working in Syria have threatened to suspend cooperation with the United Nations over its alleged complicity with the Syrian government denying aid to besieged opposition-held areas, media reported on Thursday.

Britain's Guardian newspaper reported last week that the United Nations has awarded contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to people closely associated with President Bashar Assad including groups set up by his wife, Asma, and cousin, Rami Makhlouf, who is one of Syria's most prominent and wealthy businessmen.

An Iraqi Shi'ite militia fighting in Syria on the government's side has sent more than 1,000 extra fighters to southern parts of Aleppo over the past two days to reinforce its positions, the group's spokesman Hashim al-Moussawi said on Wednesday. Whole of Syria was meant to be an information-sharing mechanism to allow organizations to maximize their knowledge of where food and medical supplies were most needed and how best to deliver that aid.

The signatories included the Syrian American Medical Society and the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, who are active in opposition-held areas. Meanwhile, 13.5 million Syrians are now in need of humanitarian assistance while 14.8 million are refugees, half of which are children, according to aid group World Vision. "The U.N.'s humanitarian arm along with its partners is navigating an extremely, extremely challenging environment".

The UN says it hopes to be able to continue to "engage" with the aid agencies who no longer want to work with them, according to a statement provided to France 24.

"We have never been shy in raising our voices when the government systematically removed surgical equipment from convoys", he said.