Portugal Colonial - UN says quake response exhausting aid stocks in Syria

UN agencies said the response to Monday's quake, which has killed at least 22,000 people in Turkey and Syria, would last far beyond the immediate life-saving search-and-rescue stage.

The Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey is currently the only way UN assistance can reach civilians in war-torn Syria without going through government-controlled areas. Meanwhile, the Syrian regime is under international sanctions.

The UN has called for politics to be stripped out of the disaster response, as it looks to replenish its warehouses.

"We cannot accept any impediments in this situation," said Catharina Boehme, from the World Health Organization's headquarters team.

"We need to ensure access to assistance and health care for all those in need. Collectively as the UN we will be measured on whether we can enable this," she told a briefing in Geneva.

Corinne Fleischer, the World Food Programme's Middle East regional director, said the WFP had pre-positioned stocks in northwest Syria of ready-to-eat food for 125,000 people and enough family rations, that need cooking, for 1.4 million people for one month.

It has already reached 30,000 people with ready-to-eat food and the rest is being distributed.

"We are running out of stocks and we need access to bring new stocks in," Fleischer said, via video-link from Cairo.

"Natural disasters don't know borders and nor does humanitarian aid. Let us be able to replenish our stocks in northwest Syria."

- Planning ahead -

UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, had 30,000 so-called core relief items -- mattresses, blankets, kitchen sets, plastic sheeting, jerry cans and sleeping mats -- and 20,000 tents pre-positioned in Syria before the quake.

"We have been distributing them since day one," said Sivanka Dhanapala, the UNHCR representative in the country.

"A lot of this is being sent out and now needs to be replenished as quickly as possible," he said, via video-link.

The agency's immediate response is focused on shelter and relief items and ensuring that collective centres receiving displaced persons have adequate facilities.

"We're also looking at what happens in four, eight, 12 weeks," said Dhanapala.

"When we look at eight to 12 weeks, we look at supporting livelihoods and basic services in affected areas," he said, including trying to undertake minor repairs in damaged housing.

"Longer term, we would look at debris removal," and trying to mobilise engineers, he added.

E.Raimundo--PC