IRC head warns of ‘secondary crisis’ in Syria

BY BENJAMIN OMOIKE

The head of the International Rescue Committee echoed concerns about aid efforts in Syria on Sunday.

“On the Turkish side of the border, you’ve got a very strong government. You’ve got a massive aid effort underway,” David Miliband, president and CEO of the organization, told ABC. “On the Syrian side of the border, it’s people who’ve frankly been abandoned over the last 10 years.”

Rescue teams on the ground report Syrians are without food, medicine and basic hygiene supplies, and water and sanitation systems are in “ruins,” Miliband told ABC. He warned Syrians are in “grave danger of a secondary crisis” because aid is largely blocked across the Turkey-Syria border, and only one humanitarian crossing point is open.

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“There is news from the United Nations that the Syrian government is going to allow aid to go into this rebel-held area from the government-controlled side. But, frankly, that’s an indirect route and it’s caught up in politics,” he told the outlet.

Miliband called on the U.N. Security Council to meet to discuss opening more border crossing points and urged the U.S. to send further monetary aid.

“There’s a critical role for the U.S. in saying, don’t forget these people again. The Syrian civil war has been going on for now a dozen years,” Miliband told ABC, adding, “The world has moved on. But the crisis has not been resolved.”