GENEVA
The U.N. is sending aid to war-torn Syria directly from Turkey for the first time it was revealed on Thursday.
U.N. coordinator Nigel Fisher said in a statement that relief agencies had not been able to transport humanitarian assistance across the Turkish-Syrian border earlier as permission had been denied by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A convoy carrying aid for hundreds of thousands of people was waiting at the border in Turkey’s southeastern province of Mardin, Fisher said.
Outlining that the aid will be sent to Syria’s northeastern city of Qamishli, Fisher confirmed the convoy was carrying food supplies, blankets, bedding, medicine and medical equipment.
Until now, the U.N. had been trying to deliver aid to Syria’s northern regions by air via Iraq. However, this approach had proved too costly.
Three years of brutal conflict in Syria has claimed over 100,000 lives since the conflict between opposition forces and the Syrian government began on March 2011, according to the United Nations.
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