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UN cranes deliver supplies across Syrian border

Xinhua, August 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

The World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) have been using huge cranes to deliver food, and hygiene kits from the Jordan to displaced persons in Syria -- over a "berm" that separates the two countries, a UN spokesman told reporters here Friday.

The "berm" means earthen embankments between Syria and Jordan. Jordan sealed the area following an attack in June on Jordanian military personnel. Before the border closure, UN agencies and partners regularly delivered supplies from the Jordanian side to the people stranded in a "no man's land."

In the first delivery of humanitarian assistance since the border was sealed in June, some 650 metric tons of aid was delivered to two locations, Rukban and Hadalat, over three days, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

More than 75,000 people seeking to escape the conflict in Syria are living in tents near the embankments between the two countries, he said.

WFP said most are women, children and the elderly who have no access to food or medicine. Endit