Humanitarian aid starting to flow into Syria

Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Years of civil war and recent natural disasters have left Syrians greatly in need of humanitarian aid, and international relief flights have begun delivering assistance.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have sent planeloads of aid to the Syrian capital of Damascus, with the first Saudi aircraft landing early Wednesday morning, Anadolu Ajansı reported. That plane contained food, medical supplies and shelter supplies.

The Saudi Arabian shipment is part of an airlift launched by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center for Syria.

Quatar also provided a planeload of supplies totaling 16 tons of humanitarian aid from the Quatar Fund for Development, ReliefWeb announced. That aid arrived at the Damascus airport on Monday.

"These humanitarian efforts underscore the state of Qatar's commitment to standing in solidarity with the brotherly Syrian people, addressing their urgent needs and accelerating aid delivery to strengthen their resilience and support a prosperous future," ReliefWeb reported.

The humanitarian aid includes food supplies, medicine, ambulances and technical assistance to help keep the Damascus airport open to accept more relief aid, Xinhua reported.

"This step will accelerate the delivery of aid to the beneficiary sectors," said Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad, Qatari minister of state for international cooperation.

The need for humanitarian aid in Syria is at an all-time high with 70% of Syrians in need of help, the European Commission said in an online assessment.

The Syrian crisis started 13 years ago and has worsened over the years due to conflict escalation, epidemics, natural disasters and climate change that has displaced about half of Syria, according to the European Commission.

Syria has a population of 23.87 million and has been embroiled in conflict and civil war with opposition forces that opposed the Assad regime, according to the CIA World Factbook.

The Russian military in 2015 intervened on behalf of the Assad regime and helped domestic and foreign-aligned military forces recapture large areas of the nation that is about 1.5 times the size of Pennsylvania.

Much of Syria's northeastern area has been under the control of Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, plus a smaller area controlled by Turkey.

A state of civil war with the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham forces that now control Syria resulted in the internal displacement of about 6.7 million Syrians and 14.6 million in need of humanitarian assistance in 2022, according to the CIA World Factbook.

The European Commission now reports the number of those in need of assistance at 16.7 million, which partly was made worse due to a magnitude 7.8 earthquake centered in southern Turkey near the northern border with Syria on Feb. 6, 2023.

A second earthquake of magnitude 7.5 and centered 59 miles southwest of the first earthquake occurred nine hours later.

The dual earthquakes damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings in Turkey and more than 10,000 in Syria.

At least 56,000 died in both nations, although the actual death toll likely is much higher.

The natural disasters exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Syria, where Islamist rebels on Dec. 8 captured the capital of Damascus and overthrew the Assad regime led by former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Assad regime had controlled the Syrian government for 50 years.