Beirut // After a two-week halt, food has once again begun to trickle into the besieged Damascus neighbourhood of Yarmouk but supplies fall far short of what is needed to feed thousands of trapped civilians, according to aid officials.
For five hours on Friday and two-and-a-half hours on Thursday, the UN was allowed access to the labyrinth-like district in the Syrian capital’s southern suburbs, just enough time to deliver food parcels for 732 families, or approximately 3,660 people.
There are 18,000 civilians in Yarmouk and a UN parcel can feed a family of five people for 10 days.
“It’s not enough,” said Chris Gunness, a spokesman for UNRWA, the United Nations agency overseeing the relief effort in Yarmouk, of the latest aid drop.
“Demand for food is overwhelming. There are widespread reports of children with malnutrition, of people eating animal feed. It is beyond desperate,” he said.
According to Amnesty International, at least 128 people have died of starvation in Yarmouk since forces loyal to President Bashar Al Assad tightened a siege in July last year.
“People are still at risk of malnutrition and starvation, which is why we need regular, sustained and substantial access,” Mr Gunness said, stressing UNRWA’s willingness to work throughout “daylight hours, seven days a week” to get medicine and food into Yarmouk.
Supplies are only allowed in with express permission of the Syrian authorities.
“It is particularly vital that UNRWA is permitted to increase the duration and scale of distributions in Yarmouk on a continuous, daily basis,” Mr Gunness said.
On February 22 , the UN Security Council passed resolution 2139, demanding the Syrian government and rebels give unfettered access for humanitarian aid, including food and medical supplies, in all parts of the country.
That was more than 60 days ago. Since then, the UN has been able to deliver 5,115 food parcels to Yarmouk, enough to feed the trapped population for about 10 days.
“The Syrian authorities are deliberately stifling the aid effort; they want to let in enough food to get the international community off their backs and claim they are meeting resolution 2139, but not enough to actually feed people – they consider Yarmouk rebel-held and their enemy,” said an aid worker familiar with relief efforts in the district.
In the two weeks before Thursday’s aid delivery, the Syrian authorities had closed Yarmouk off, shutting the main checkpoint at the northern tip of the district.
Syrian officials said “security concerns” prompted the renewed blockade. According to two aid workers close to the relief effort in Yarmouk, the authorities stopped deliveries amid allegations that a senior regime security officer had taken a large bribe to let in more food.
“We have been told a high ranking security official took a lot of money to let in more food than the regime wanted getting in. The details are not clear, but that seems to be the reason for the closure of the checkpoint two weeks ago, there has been a big investigation into it,” said an official with a western aid organisation, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The claim could not be independently verified.
In the early months of the Syrian uprising, Yarmouk, largely inhabited by Palestinian refugees and low-ranking Syrian government functionaries, remained neutral. But, slowly, it got sucked into the revolution and, later, the wider conflict, with Palestinians joining both regime and rebels groups.
In June 2011, Palestinian residents in Yarmouk protested against some Palestinian political factions which had openly joined forces with Mr Al Assad. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC), the main pro-regime group in Yarmouk, responded to the peaceful protest by fatally shooting 12 unarmed demonstrators, further inflaming tensions.
As Syrians displaced from nearby neighbourhoods, such as Hajar Aswad and Tadamon, sought refuge in Yarmouk, pro-regime militias began to take command of the streets and used it to stage out attacks on rebels nearby.
That brought fighting directly into the camp, a situation that dramatically escalated in the summer of 2012, when rebel units launched an ill-fated assault on central Damascus. Telling residents they needed “a few days” to carry out the attack, rebel units took command of Yarmouk. They never left, and as Al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat Al Nusra grew in prominence there, regime forces imposed a devastating blockade.
In February this year, negotiations to end the siege saw Al Nusra agree to pull its fighters out of Yarmouk in exchange for an end to the blockafe. While regime forces did subsequently allow in more aid, it was tightly controlled and in small amounts, not the broader opening Al Nusra felt it had agreed to.
The rebel fighters returned, saying Damascus had reneged on the deal, and aid access was once more cut back. Rebels remain in Yarmouk.
“It is bad luck for the people of Yarmouk that both the regime and the rebels have decided it is a strategically important place, that it is a gate to Damascus, so both are prepared to fight to the last drop of our blood to win there,” said a former resident, now a refugee.
“No one will win there, and all of the civilians will lose. So much has already been destroyed there, most of what we knew has been turned to rubble,” he said.
psands@thenational.ae
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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The%20specs%3A%202024%20Mercedes%20E200
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Company%20Profile
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Tips to avoid getting scammed
1) Beware of cheques presented late on Thursday
2) Visit an RTA centre to change registration only after receiving payment
3) Be aware of people asking to test drive the car alone
4) Try not to close the sale at night
5) Don't be rushed into a sale
6) Call 901 if you see any suspicious behaviour
Sri Lanka squad
Dinesh Chandimal, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kaushal Silva, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Lahiru Thirimanne, Niroshan Dickwella, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Rangana Herath, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Lakshan Sandakan, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Jeffrey Vandersay, Milinda Siriwardana, Roshen Silva, Akila Dananjaya, Charith Asalanka, Shaminda Eranga and Dhammika Prasad.
