Iraqi Kurdistan rejects NGO accusations of blocking aid to Syrian Kurds
The government of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region is responding with anger to relief organizations' claims that it is blocking aid to the northeast Syria as COVID-19 rages, with officials saying it has "bent over backward" to help.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq has reacted angrily to claims by international relief agencies that it is blocking aid to the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, saying they are untrue.
The first public volley came from Medecins Sans Frontiers, the French non-governmental organization known as Doctors without Borders in English that has a long record of helping Kurds on both sides of the border. In a tweet, it urged authorities in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and northeast Syria “to facilitate timely access for humanitarian organizations, including for humanitarian cargo and international staff to travel to and enter into both countries." Adding the hashtag #COVID-19, the group continued that "its response “remains limited so long as timely access is not granted.”
