The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq has reacted angrily to claims by international relief agencies that it is blocking aid to the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, saying they are untrue.

The first public volley came from Medecins Sans Frontiers, the French non-governmental organization known as Doctors without Borders in English that has a long record of helping Kurds on both sides of the border. In a tweet, it urged authorities in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and northeast Syria “to facilitate timely access for humanitarian organizations, including for humanitarian cargo and international staff to travel to and enter into both countries." Adding the hashtag #COVID-19, the group continued that "its response “remains limited so long as timely access is not granted.”

Since January, the Semalka/Fish Khabur crossing with Iraqi Kurdistan has become the sole entry point for aid to northeast Syria after UN deliveries from Iraq via the Yaroubiyah crossing further south were blocked by Russian and Chinese vetoes at the UN Security Council in December. In a further setback, aid transfers were recently disrupted by flooding in the Khabur stream, a Tigris tributary that separates Semalka and Fish Khabur. 

Some 40% of the northeast’s medical provisions had come in via Yaroubiyah.