After 12 years of civil war, the last thing Syrians needed was an earthquake

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Exactly 12 years ago, peaceful demonstrations began in Syria, as people inspired by the Arab Spring movement in neighboring countries took to the streets to demand change after decades of rule by dictator Bashar al-Assad. The protesters probably never dreamed that their peaceful demonstrations would descend into a civil war that would rage for more than a decade.

A UK-based monitoring group said it had documented more than 503,000 people killed in the conflict, including more than 162,000 civilians. More than 13 million people have been forced to flee their homes, and an estimated 15 million are now dependent on humanitarian aid.

Syrians who have survived the rise and fall of ISIS, the ground battles, the bombardment, the airstrikes, and the blasts of a complex war — in which Russia supports their government and the United States and its allies support rebel forces — then have had to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. .

The war in Syria 20 photos

Endless disasters have led many families to move from one place to another in search of safety, especially in the war-torn north, where some cities have been reduced to rubble by government forces and Russia.

Then, on February 6, the already exhausted and frail survivors of the war were dealt another blow when massive earthquakes rocked the region.

Within a single day, without warning, thousands of Syrians found themselves homeless again. Civilian aid groups say 250,000 people, newly displaced by the earthquakes, remain stuck in more than 1,800 makeshift camps and shelters in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo.

Syrian children orphaned by the earthquake face uncertainty 02:13

Northern Syria was already crippled by war, and with rebel forces still controlling much of the territory, post-earthquake search and rescue fell solely to the White Helmets, a volunteer civil defense organization operating across northern Syria.

“More than 40,000 families have lost their homes and need us to heal their wounds and provide them with support,” White Helmets director Raed al-Saleh told CBS News.

Unequipped to deal with a disaster of this magnitude, the group quickly turned to the international community for help, but its leaders say they have been neglected by the world.

White Helmets volunteer discusses recovery efforts in Syria 09:23

The United Nations has come under fire for the response, and Al-Saleh said the world body should take some of the blame “from rescue workers who lost their nails while trying to rescue those trapped under the rubble and from the families of the victims grieving for their children.”

The United Nations agreed that it took a long time to get help in northern Syria. These delays are due in large part to the ongoing war. It took UN officials and others a week to convince the Assad regime to open two more border crossings into the rebel-held north. Only one was working when the earthquakes hit. Opposition factions have also been accused of obstructing the flow of aid, including stealing it and then selling it on the black market.

In a report published Monday, a UN-backed independent panel acknowledged the “total failure of the government and the international community including the UN to direct urgent life-saving aid to northwest Syria” after the earthquakes, with one of the commissioners, Paul Pinheiro. Noting that “many days were lost without any help for the survivors.”

Syrians displaced as a result of the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023, in a temporary camp in the Bustan al-Basha neighborhood of the Syrian government-held northern city of Aleppo, February 20, 2023 LOUAY BESHARA/AFP/Getty

Pinheiro said northwest Syria had become a “hotbed of neglect”.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry’s report on Syria called for an official investigation into why more border crossings are taking so long – and for a “fully respected, comprehensive ceasefire” to allow relief work to continue and civilians to live in safety.

But far from the cease-fire, the earthquakes may have prolonged the suffering of the Syrian people because of the war. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring organization that has relied on a network of contacts inside the country to report on the war for years, claimed on Tuesday that Iran’s military had exploited the post-earthquake chaos to smuggle in. Advanced weapons in Syria.

The SOHR report could not be independently verified by CBS News, but Iran supports some militias operating in northern Syria, near the Turkish border, which have battled government forces and other rebel groups in recent years.

The United States launches an airstrike against Iranian-backed militias in Syria 01:32

The earthquakes claimed the lives of about 50,000 people in Turkey and at least 6,000 people in Syria. But in Syria, earthquakes have exacerbated what was already a miserable existence for hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom are now stuck in frozen displacement camps.

“Syria was not in ruins just because it was hit by a massive earthquake. Syria has been in ruins for 12 years, since the world turned a blind eye to the Assad regime and Russia with barrel bombs, air strikes and chemical dumps,” Al-Saleh of the White Helmets told CBS News.

So far, more than 600 truckloads of aid provided by seven UN agencies have crossed into northwest #Syria since the #earthquakes using the three available border crossings.

At least 8.8 million people in Syria were affected by the earthquake. pic.twitter.com/eUPTMUy6JQ

– United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) March 9, 2023

After a slow start, aid has poured into northern Syria, where the United Nations said last week that more than 600 trucks carrying emergency humanitarian goods from eight of the world’s agencies had entered since the earthquakes.

The White Helmets director acknowledged a “marked improvement” in the support provided by the UN, but stressed that humanitarian needs are still growing rapidly due to earthquake-damaged infrastructure and a persistent lack of necessities in the makeshift camps.

A medic gives a cholera vaccine to a child in the Maram camp for displaced Syrians in northwestern Idlib province on March 7, 2023. Omar Haj Kaddour/AFP/Getty Images

Aid workers recently warned that a lack of basic hygiene and fresh water in the camps has allowed cholera to spread, with at least 22 confirmed deaths from the disease since late last year.

Vaccination efforts have also intensified, with health officials in Idlib province claiming to have administered more than half a million doses as of this week.

“This earthquake was the biggest natural disaster Syria has seen in decades,” Al-Saleh told CBS News. “In the early days the focus was on those trapped under the rubble. But now, a month later, we have to deal with those who are still stuck – but above the rubble.”

CBS News correspondent Pamela Falk at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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