ANKARA: Turkish authorities have blocked a convoy carrying aid to Kobani, a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria encircled by the Syrian army, NGOs and a Turkish MP said on Saturday.
They said the aid was blocked before it reached the Turkiye-Syria border, despite an agreement announced on Friday between the Syrian government and the country’s Kurdish minority to gradually integrate the Kurds’ military and civilian institutions into the state.
Twenty-five lorries containing water, milk, baby formula and blankets collected in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkiye’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, “were prevented from crossing the border,” said the Diyarbakir Solidarity and Protection Platform, which organized the aid campaign.
“Blocking humanitarian aid trucks carrying basic necessities is unacceptable, both from the point of view of humanitarian law and from the point of view of moral responsibility,” said the platform, which brings together several NGOs.
Earlier this week, residents of Kobani told AFP they were running out of food, water and electricity because the city was overwhelmed with people fleeing the advance of the Syrian army.
