The EU’s humanitarian aid to people in Syria, victims of the 6 February earthquakes in the country and in Turkey, was ramping up on Tuesday 14 February, the day Syrian President Bashar El Assad agreed to open two additional crossing points between Turkey and north-western Syria - news that the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, immediately welcomed.
“I welcome the extension of the crossing points”, the commissioner said on his Twitter account, relaying the 13 February message issued by UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Back in Gaziantep, Turkey, on the border with Syria, where he had already visited late last week to take stock of the disaster (see EUROPE 13118/7), Mr Lenarčič announced that a Romanian plane “had just landed in Gaziantep and another in Beirut, each carrying 7 tons of shelter, clothes and food for the earthquake victims in Syria”.
The aid, provided through the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism will be channelled through the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as Mr Lenarčič told MEPs in Strasbourg the previous day during the debate on the EU’s response to this humanitarian disaster (see EUROPE 13120/12). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)