The European Commission said it would launch an operation on Friday to send 50 tonnes of aid to Syria via neighbouring Turkey. The healthcare equipment will leave from EU warehouses in Dubai and then to Adana, Turkey, and then be delivered to Syria “in the coming days”, it said in a statement. An additional 46 tonnes of aid will then be sent from Denmark to Adana, while in Syria it will be distributed by the United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization. UNICEF said more than a million people, mostly women and children, have been forced to flee Syria since the rebel offensive began, which toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she would discuss humanitarian aid again when she meets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey on Tuesday.
“With such a hostile situation on the ground, our support for the people of Syria is even more important,” she was quoted as saying. The Commission said it had raised four million euros to “address the most urgent humanitarian needs,” bringing the total to 163 million euros. Assad’s brutal regime was toppled by the Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group after nearly 14 years of civil war that has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions. Assad and his family are in Russia, having been granted asylum directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In recent years, HTS, an Islamist militant group, has severed ties with al-Qaeda and sought to present itself as a pragmatic alternative to the Syrian government. However, there are concerns about abuses committed by the group, as well as its links to other terrorist groups. HTS is a designated terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
