World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus today visited areas of rebel-held northwestern Syria that were devastated by last month’s earthquake.
Tedros who is the highest-ranking United Nations official to visit Syria’s rebel-held zones since the February 6 quake, had travelled to government-controlled areas of Aleppo and Damascus the week of the disaster.
He entered Syria today from neighbouring Turkey via the Bab al-Hawa crossing and visited several hospitals and a shelter for those displaced.
In the aftermath of the quake, activists and emergency teams in the rebel-held northwest decried the UN’s slow response, contrasting it with the planeloads of humanitarian aid that have been delivered to government-controlled airports.
A total of 258 planes laden with aid have reached regime-controlled areas, 129 of them from the United Arab Emirates.
UN relief chief Martin Griffiths admitted on February 12 that the body had “so far failed the people in northwest Syria”.
Since then, the UN launched a $397 million appeal to help quake victims in Syria.
The United Nations says a total of 420 trucks loaded with UN aid have crossed into the rebel-held pocket since the tragedy.
