DUBAI // A convoy of lorries loaded with essential supplies for more than 100,000 people set off from Dubai yesterday on a two-week journey to Syria.
The 33 vehicles, carrying Dh4.4?million of relief aid, left the United Nation’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warehouse in Dubai Humanitarian City on a route that will take them through Saudi Arabia and Jordan, eventually reaching Syria in about 14 days.
“UNHCR is working inside Syria and in neighbouring countries to help people uprooted by the war,” said Amin Awad, regional refugee coordinator.
“This shipment of relief items will ensure thousands of vulnerable Syrian families have the necessary aid they require.”
The lorries are carrying 100,000 blankets, 27,900 kitchen sets and 50,000 jerry cans, as well as other goods.
“These are what we call core relief items,” said Soliman Daud, senior global supply officer at UNHCR. “Those are to meet the basic needs a person has when he’s uprooted from his home or if he’s trapped inside a conflict.”
There are believed to be 4.25 million displaced people in Syria, and 6.8 million in need of aid.
The donation is not the largest shipment to leave the UAE, but is one of the biggest sent over land, said Mr Daud, who oversees the UNHCR’s warehouses in Dubai.
The cost of transporting and storing the supplies is about Dh440,000. This year, the agency has distributed aid to 1.6 million people in Syria.
To date, more than 3.6 million items have been shipped to the war-torn country by UNHCR.
In the past week, 10 UNHCR lorries distributed aid to 10,000 people in the north-west city of Idlib, an area of continuing tensions.
The Dubai facility is the largest in the region and is able to meet the needs of 390,000 people at any one time.
“We can respond to emergencies within the region in 72 hours by road or by sea,” Mr Daud said. “At the beginning of emergencies we usually respond by air.
“We are in a very strategic location here and Dubai has excellent logistics facilities.”
The UNHCR also offers cash aid to displaced Syrians. The agency has handed out Dh3.34 million, in Syrian pounds, to 33,000 people so far this year.
The agency assesses people based on need, said a UNHCR representative, Tarik Kurdi.
“UNHCR has established vulnerability criteria and carefully screens internally displaced persons to ensure they qualify for the cash aid programme,” he said.
"Many of the displaced persons we are assisting are persons with disabilities or serious medical conditions."
mcroucher@thenational.ae
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
Tank warfare
Lt Gen Erik Petersen, deputy chief of programs, US Army, has argued it took a “three decade holiday” on modernising tanks.
“There clearly remains a significant armoured heavy ground manoeuvre threat in this world and maintaining a world class armoured force is absolutely vital,” the general said in London last week.
“We are developing next generation capabilities to compete with and deter adversaries to prevent opportunism or miscalculation, and, if necessary, defeat any foe decisively.”
The biog
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Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
