The head of the Syrian Civil Defence Organisation, Raed Salah, said that the situation in northwestern Syria is "catastrophic" and accused the United Nations of "failing” going as far to call it “complicit" in its slow response to help rescue those trapped under the rubble after the earthquake that struck northern Syria and southeastern Turkey.
Saleh called for the provision of tools to "recover the corpses and refrigerators to preserve the bodies."
"The situation is catastrophic," Saleh told Al Majalla in a phone call from Sarmada in rural Idlib.
"The United Nations was late in sending aid, and even the aid that was scheduled to be sent stopped after the earthquake."
"This means that the United Nations is complicit," he said.
He added: "They claimed to have reached 5 per cent of the areas. This is a lie. They have only reached two out of 300 sites damaged by the earthquake."
On Thursday, the death toll from the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria this week exceeded 17,000. Hopes of finding survivors fade 72 hours after the disaster. The slow delivery of aid has aggravated frustration. On Friday, the death toll exceeded 23,000
“The United Nations is negligent. It claims that the crossings are closed while they are open," Saleh said.
Under a UN resolution, international humanitarian aid is permitted to be delivered in two ways: through the Bab al-Hawa crossing between Idlib and Turkey, while Damascus is required to send help "across the contact lines" between government and opposition areas.
Making it difficult
As Damascus and Moscow insisted that the aid reaches Damascus before sending it to the opposition-controlled areas, Western countries are hesitant to dispatch experts to help the Syrians.
The United States also refrained from sending equipment from northeastern Syria to its northwest, the site of the earthquake.
On Thursday, the first United Nations convoy crossed into Syria from Turkey carrying humanitarian aid for the Syrian victims of the earthquake.
Trucks loaded with aid, including packages and blankets, entered the Bab al-Hawa crossing into the city of Idlib in a region of northwestern Syria where some four million people live.
These people were already dependent on humanitarian aid before Monday's quake. Many of them have been displaced by the country's 12-year conflict.
During the war, the Syrian Civil Defence (also known as the White Helmets) played a vital role in rescuing civilians hit by bombing in different areas in Syria — especially in the northwest.
They are now working day and night recovering those trapped under the rubble and helping the wounded and the homeless.
Saleh said that he contacted US, European, and UN officials, asking for urgent aid to rescue people from under the rubble, "but unfortunately, they were too late."
"They promised they would send aid, but it did not arrive."
The Civil Defence workers have rescued many trapped people, including one saved at dawn yesterday.
But Saleh says, “now the focus is on recovering the bodies. So far, there have been 1,900 deaths and 2,900 wounded. We transfer the bodies to hospitals so that their families — if they were alive — can identify them."