On 4 December 2015, a new humanitarian shipment of medical equipment, medicines, winter tents and blankets arrived at the Turkish-Iraqi border in Ibrahim Khali/Zako for the population of Rojava, the Kurdish-majority area of Syria resisting the advance of Daesh (Islamic State) in the region.
The shipment, ordered by the Italian Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), departed from the UN Depot (UNHRD) in Brindisi bound for Dohuk, in the Autonomous Region of Iraqi Kurdistan (KRG), where it was taken over for distribution.
The shipment, with a total value of 80,000 euro, consists of medical equipment, medicines, 70 winter tents and 450 blankets, which will meet the needs of more than 20,000 people.
The medicines are destined for hospitals in Rojava, in particular the one in the city of Qamishlo, and for the 15 Kurdish Red Crescent health centres we support, to reach as far as Kobane, the city that symbolises the resistance against Daesh.
Instead, winter tents and blankets will be distributed in the two refugee camps of Newroz and Roj, which have sheltered thousands of displaced Ezidə who fled Sinjar and are still forced to live in precarious conditions.
This is the third expedition destined for the people of Rojava, after those already carried out in May 2015 thanks to the collaboration between MAECI, the Tavola Valdese's Eight Per Thousand Office and Un Ponte Per.
Considering the difficulty of access to Syrian territory, the arrival of this aid is extremely important for the winter. Tents and blankets in particular will be of extreme help to the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons in Syria.
