Amid growing complaints from rebel factions that the UN is ineffective at getting aid shipped into Syria, the UN today announced that they’ve managed to get aid convoys into every single besieged part of the country so far this year.
The Red Cross confirmed that the last convoys arrived today, in the rebel-held towns of Zamalka and Irbin, both near the capital city of Damascus, and neither of which had gotten a full-scale shipment of humanitarian aid since 2012.
The UN has struggled to negotiate terms for delivery in Syria, with large chunks of the country under siege by various different factions. Often the deliveries have had to be tit-for-tat agreements, with aid allowed into a couple of towns sieged by rival factions.
Rebels have complained in particular that this has kept aid out of certain areas surrounded by the Syrian military, but in many cases the Syrian government has simply cautioned that their lack of control over the areas meant they can’t guarantee the safety of the aid workers. Either way, the efforts seem to be improving, with everyplace at least getting one shipment so far in the last six months.