ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United Nations humanitarian office plans to raise challenges in the Kurdish-held northeast Syria (Rojava) at a fundraising conference in Brussels on Monday, an official said on Thursday.
The European Union will host the conference, titled “Standing with Syria: Meeting the Needs for a Successful Transition.” The aim of the event is to gather support for the new administration in Damascus.
“I'll be going to Brussels on Monday, to the Syria pledging conference with a positive story about what we've been able to deliver, the scale up since my visit, which has seen a lot more aid get in, but also the challenges which remain, including, as you say, in the northeast,” Tom Fletcher, under-secretary-general at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Rudaw during a press briefing.
“And we've got a mission there [Rojava] today assessing the conditions and seeing if the recent political changes, the agreements made over the weekend, can help us get more aid into those who so badly need it,” he added.
The Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria have repeatedly complained about the inadequate amount of international aid flowing into the region before and after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December.
There are several camps housing displaced people in northeast Syria, including al-Hol camp where around 40,000 people are held, the majority of them having ties with the Islamic State (ISIS).
