Aid caravan brings succour to Iraq’s displaced peoples

On Tuesday, Syria dispatched a humanitarian aid convoy across the border to Iraq bearing vital supplies and medicine to be distributed to Iraqis living in "severe conditions under occupation", according to official news agency SANA. The aid shipment was arranged by the Syrian Red Crescent Society, together with the Dutch Red Cross, and is intended to ease the conditions of displaced Iraqi victims of ongoing sectarian violence. State Minister for Syrian Red Crescent Affairs Dr Bashar al-Shaar said the caravan was the sixth of its kind to be sent by the Syrian people to “those Iraqis who live in areas of military operations, especially in Samarra and its neighbourhoods”. The convoy ended its journey on Wednesday morning at the Baghdad offices of the Iraq Red Crescent Society (IRCS). “We’ve received the supplies and have begun distributing them to those families requiring the most urgent assistance,” said one IRCS volunteer who preferred to speak anonymously for security reasons. “Tomorrow, we’ll send additional aid to the improvised refugee camps far from Baghdad.” IRCS officials, meanwhile, said they were expecting another emergency convoy from Syria, carrying some 1,500 tonnes of drugs and medicines, to arrive in the coming week. Iraqi beneficiaries of the Syrian aid were quick to express their gratitude. “God bless those who are thinking of us, even if they’re of another nationality,” said Marian Ali, a mother of four currently taking refuge in an improvised camp on the outskirts of the capital. “They’re taking care of us better than our own government.” According to statistics issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration, nearly 70,000 Iraqis have been displaced due to ongoing sectarian violence.