U.N.

Recent reports have sounded the alarm on the bleak water crisis that five million people in northeast Syria are facing. The roots of the water dilemma are entangled and protracted and the political instability in the northeast hinders efforts to design a comprehensive strategy to manage the dwindling water resources. 

Amid limited progress in the normalisation with Damascus, two recent meetings between Yemeni and Syrian officials seem to signal Yemen’s bid to bolster a rapprochement process stalled since Damascus’ return to the Arab League in May.

On September 7, the Commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, declared his forces had “full control” of the areas in Deir-ez-Zor province that had witnessed 12-day clashes between the US-backed SDF and some local Arab tribes. 

A month after the U.N. and the Syrian government reached a bilateral agreement to replace the defunct U.N. Security Council mandated cross border mechanism, aid flow into northwest Syria has slowed to a trickle.

The shipment of emergency aid to the Al-Rukban Camp in eastern Syria last week has highlighted the abysmal conditions prevailing there.

The Syrian government has seized the February 06 earthquake as an opportunity to call on Western governments to lift sanctions on Syria, claiming that they have severely impeded emergency response and humanitarian relief efforts to assist affected communities.