Politics hampers efforts to provide aid to earthquake victims in northwestern Syria

Amna Nawaz:

Turkey's interior minister said today that over 80,000 buildings in his nation were either destroyed or have become uninhabitable after last week's quake.

The situation across the border in Syria is dire for the millions left homeless, so many of whom already suffered greatly through nearly 12 years of war. Supplying shelter and aid is a prime focus there now. But, remarkably, people are still being pulled from the rubble after a week-and-a-half.

Another miraculous rescue. Mustafa Avci was pulled from the rubble in Antakya after than 10 days. His first phone call was to his brother.

"I would die to see you smile," he told him.

But most hope has faded elsewhere. In Kahramanamaras, the epicenter of the second quake, families finally found their loved ones, only to bury them.

Huseyin Akis, Turkish Earthquake Survivor (through translator):

We waited by the fire for 10 days to get the bodies our family members from under the rubble, 10 days.

Amna Nawaz:

Turkey is grieving and praying for those dead and alive.

Across the border in Idlib city in Northwest Syria, 9-year-old Nour Mohammed has been alone at this hospital since the earthquake. Today, she's being taken to her father, their first embrace in 11 days.

In the tent city of Salqin, thousands of Syrian families now left to live in the ruins. There's hunger and a childhood scarred. Mohammed Ali and his children were lucky to survive, but nothing much is left of their home. They have lost 27 members of their family.

The remaining survivors live in this tiny tent, 17 men, women and children, everything they now own piled in this corner.

Mohammed Ali, Syrian Earthquake Survivor (through translator):

We need tents to use as makeshift bathrooms. We have not cooked a single meal since the earthquake. The first day or two, they brought us meals. Since then, it's closed, and they have given us nothing. We need gas, things to cook with.

Amna Nawaz:

At the tent next door, 25-year-old Absi Ahmed Obeid and his aunt, Zahra Abidi, struggle to care for his 4-month-old. He's all they have left. Ahmed lost his parents and sister. His wife is seriously injured.

Absi Ahmed Obeid, Syrian Earthquake Survivor (through translator):

We need everything. What can I tell you? I'm in this tent, and all we have is a heater, no food, not drinks, nothing. I left barefoot. I didn't take anything from the building I lived in. It's all rubble.

Zahra Abidi, Syrian Earthquake Survivor (through translator):

We don't have milk for this child. We don't have anything but this tent. Some people gave some rice that we made starch from for the child to eat. We don't matter.

We are used to it, but not our children. We need things like milk, diapers, warm clothes, and health services.

Amna Nawaz:

The needs are enormous, but hopes have long since dwindled for these Syrians displaced by yet another calamity.

For more on this, we turn to Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and co-founder of MedGlobal, an organization that provides medical support to conflict zones around the world. He was raised in Syria, went to medical school there, came to the United States in the early 1990s.

Dr. Sahloul, welcome. And thank you for joining us. Tell us a little bit about what your team is doing right now, what they are able to do on the ground in Syria and what additional aid is needed

Dr. Zaher Sahloul, President, MedGlobal:

Thank you, Amna, for having me.

Our team started working right after the earthquake. We have a team of 200 doctors and nurses and humanitarian workers. We run two hospitals and multiple clinics. As you know, this is an area that has 4.2 million people. Half of them are displaced from other parts of Syria. So, our surgeons have been doing surgeries nonstop, more than 700 procedures, between major operations and smaller operations.

We also mobilized a mobile clinic to provide health care services to the victims of the earthquake that now lost their homes, and they are in temporary shelters. So they're providing nutritional support for the children and pregnant woman, medications for patients with chronic diseases, psychosocial support for everyone, because everyone is traumatized, including our medical team.

Amna Nawaz:

As you just described, as we just saw in the report, the need is so great. It is so enormous.

We know now there are three border crossings that are open to aid, after President Bashar al-Assad relented days after the earthquake. Is the aid that's coming, is it enough, and is it going where it needs to go?

Dr. Zaher Sahloul:

It was too little and too late.

It took more than eight days for the aid to start flowing. And this is in a major disaster, an area that was hit by multiple disasters in the past. As everyone knows, this is an area that was the place of war for the past 12 years. There is a COVID pandemic for the past three years or so. There's a cholera outbreak. The weather is freezing cold.

And half of the population are displaced. And now you have this major earthquake, and the area was not ready for this. The last major earthquake that hit Syria was more than 200 years ago. And the flow started coming, trickling eight days after the earthquake, because the border crossing was closed — were closed because the damage that happened to the road.

It is also because of the blockage from the Assad regime to the border crossing. But since it opened, now we have more than 140 U.N. trucks that went through. It is not enough. And people are feeling deserted by the international community after the earthquake.

Amna Nawaz:

Now that the aid has started to flow, there are some concerns that President Assad is exploiting this tragedy, that he's using it as an opportunity to sort of normalize himself and emerge from isolation back onto the global stage.

Do you share that concern?

Dr. Zaher Sahloul:

Clearly, the population in that area feels that way.

This is an area that was bombed by the Assad regime frequently. There is a history here of the Assad regime weaponizing humanitarian aid. And because of that, people are fearful in Idlib that, if humanitarian assistance were given to the Assad regime, then they will end up — they will end up manipulating it, as they have done in the past, and preventing the population from getting any aid.

Right now, the aid is flowing through the three border crossings, al-Raee, and Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam. And this should continue and should be sustained, so that, that way, people have access to life-sustaining food, medicine and shelter.

Amna Nawaz:

So, the problem here — and this is where I'd love your take — is, how can the — how can the United Nations, how can the U.S. continue to provide the aid that's needed, and, at the same time, not empower Assad?

Dr. Zaher Sahloul:

I think our U.S. policy was clear and right, which is basically providing the aid to the population through the local NGOs directly and through the U.N., of course.

Local NGOs should be supported and funded directly by the USAID and other international funders, because they know what are the needs of the population. They react much faster than the U.N., as we have proved in this crisis. Many global team and other NGOs started responding to the crisis a few minutes after the earthquake.

The U.N. took them more than eight days to get there. Unfortunately, what will come after the first shock from the earthquake will be even worse because of the outbreaks of diseases, including cholera and other conditions, and because of the malnutrition that will get worse, and because of the mental health trauma that affected the whole population.

So Syria should be lifted as a priority to the U.S. administration and to the international community. The silver lining of the earthquake, that people are paying more attention to Syria, and maybe the Biden administration should pay more attention to ending the Syrian crisis politically and exerted all of its — exert all of its political diplomatic power to end the crisis.

Amna Nawaz:

That is Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and founder of MedGlobal.

Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Zaher Sahloul:

Thank you.