Two planes have landed in Damascus (Syria) to deliver humanitarian aid to the population in Syria, victim of the 6 February earthquakes, the European Commission announced on Monday 27 February.
These planes carry essential relief items such as winter tents, shelters and heaters. These are the first flights to land in Damascus for this emergency, but they are part of a wider humanitarian airlift operation to help survivors wherever they are - in rebel and government-controlled areas alike. This emergency in-kind assistance is the result of the mobilisation of the European humanitarian response capacity. In total, the airlift will deliver 420 tonnes of aid, including 225 tonnes from the EU’s own humanitarian reserves, worth €1.1 million.
This is in addition to the assistance already provided through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism in response to the Syrian authorities' request for assistance to the European Commission on 8 February (see EUROPE 13126/14, 13124/10).
To date, 15 countries have responded (Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Slovakia, Slovenia and Norway) with more than eight million tonnes of essential goods flown from Romania to Gaziantep (Turkey) and Beirut (Lebanon). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)