The aid groups working in Syria and neighboring Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey announced in a letter to the United Nations humanitarian office in Turkey, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, that they are suspending participation in an information-sharing program aimed at improving aid delivery.
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In the letter to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the 73 signatories demanded an investigation of the UN agencies’ work in Syria and called for a monitoring body to be set up to oversee the relief effort.
In northern Syria, a Turkish tank was struck during fighting between Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces and Islamic State militants, killing three soldiers, according to military officials. The government’s loss of the Ramousah road left the people in western Aleppo dependent on a much more risky route.
The monitor confirmed reports by residents and activists in rebel-held eastern Aleppo who said Syrian army helicopters dropped barrel bombs on residential civilian areas in several districts.
President Bashar al-Assad’s offensive aims to strengthen the buffer zone around their main supply route into the city from the south.
O’Brien said no aid convoys have gotten into besieged areas of Syria this month, only airdrops.
“The Syrian government is trying to limit funding to areas besieged by its troops”.
Consequently, the groups say they are withdrawing from participation in the Whole of Syria information-sharing mechanism until the process is revised with “no political influence in any aspect of it”, as well as new protocols for medical evaluations “not subject to the political negotiations or influence of parties on the ground”. “The problem is that they are not doing anything about it”.
“Everything is listed. We always welcome any scrutiny to our humanitarian work in Syria”.
The groups announced they were pulling out of a United Nations information-sharing program for aid deliveries and would propose a new mechanism “where there is no political influence in any aspect of it”.
However, the government has a history of being accused of similar attacks.
The agreement reached by the powers backing opposing sides in the conflict promised a nationwide truce effective from sundown on Monday, improved humanitarian aid access and joint military targeting of banned Islamist groups.
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Residents inspect a damaged site after airstrikes on a market in the rebel controlled city of Idlib September 10, 2016.
