Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

First Aid since June Reaches Syrians Trapped on Jordan Border | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55352535
Caption:

A picture taken on June 6, 2016 shows Jordanian security forces vehicles patrolling near the Jordanian intelligence agency office in the Baqaa camp north of the capital Amman following a gun attack. STRINGER / AFP


Amman-U.N. agencies have announced the first delivery since June of desperately-needed food and hygiene supplies to around 75,000 Syrians trapped on the border with Jordan.

The announcement came on Thursday in a joint statement by the heads of the World Food Program, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the children’s agency UNICEF and the International Organization for Migration.

Jordan closed its border with Syria in June after a suicide bombing rocked al-Rukban area.

The heads of the four U.N. agencies announced the “successful completion of a relief operation to provide more than 75,000 people with food and humanitarian items.”

“Unable either to cross the border or turn back, the situation facing these women, men and children has grown more dire by the day,” they said.

“Sheltering in makeshift tents in harsh desert conditions with temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius and sudden sand storms, they are without sufficient food and have barely enough water to survive,” the statement added.

World Food Program spokeswoman in Jordan, Shaza Moghrabi, told Agence France Presse the aid included 650 tons of food including rice, lentils and dates.

Jordan declared the border area a “military zone” after the June attack, blocking access to Syrian refugees.

Jordan had limited last year the number of crossings to only five over security fears. The al-Rukban and al-Hadlat crossings had also been restricted to refugees before the attack that rocked al-Rukban area.

The Jordanian army has said that the booby trapped vehicle that was used in the bombing had come out of the Syrian refugee camp near al-Rukban.

According to the U.N., there are 630,000 registered Syrians in Jordan. The Kingdom says that it hosts around 1.4 million refugees since the Syrian war broke out in March 2011.