Syria’s military opens humanitarian corridors to Kobane as UN aid convoy delivers supplies, following a renewed 15-day ceasefire agreement.
DAMASCUS: Syria’s military announced it had opened humanitarian corridors to the Kurdish-majority town of Kobane on Sunday.
The move allows aid entry as a United Nations convoy carrying essential supplies headed for the displacement-filled town.
A statement from the military specified the opening of two corridors, one to Kobane and another in nearby Hasakeh province.
This development follows a 15-day extension of a ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government and Kurdish forces.
Kurdish forces recently relinquished large areas of territory to government troops after weeks of clashes.
Residents in Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, had reported severe shortages of food, water and power earlier in the week.
The enclave is flooded with people who fled the Syrian army’s recent advances.
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the UN refugee agency’s representative in Syria, confirmed the aid delivery on social media platform X.
“Thanks to the cooperation with the Syrian government… a convoy of 24 trucks carrying essential food, relief items, and diesel departed for Kobane,” he stated.
The aid is intended to deliver life-saving and winter assistance to civilians affected by the hostilities.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces now find themselves restricted to Kurdish-majority areas in the northeast and Kobane.
The town is surrounded by the Turkish border to the north and government forces on all other sides.
It lies approximately 200 kilometres from the Kurds’ primary stronghold in Syria’s far northeast.
Kobane became a symbol of Kurdish resistance after its liberation from an Islamic State group siege in 2015.
The renewed truce is also intended to support the ongoing US transfer of Islamic State detainees from Syria to Iraq.
