A United Nations humanitarian convoy arrived on Sunday in the Kurdish-majority town of Kobane, which has recently been inundated with people displaced by fighting in northern Syria, a UN spokesperson told AFP.
Earlier in the day, the Syrian military said it had opened a humanitarian corridor to the town—also known by its Arabic name, Ain al-Arab—which once became a symbol of Kurdish fighters’ victory over Islamic State (IS) militants.
The aid delivery came as Syrian authorities and Kurdish forces extended a ceasefire agreement, after Kurdish fighters handed over large areas of territory to government troops.
Earlier this week, residents in Kobane told AFP they were facing severe shortages of food, water and electricity, and that the enclave had been overwhelmed by people fleeing the Syrian army’s advance.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said on Sunday that 24 lorries were on their way to Kobane carrying “life-saving assistance, including fuel, bread and ready-to-eat rations, to support people affected by recent developments”.
Later, the UN refugee agency’s spokesperson in Syria, Celine Schmitt, confirmed to AFP that the convoy had arrived.
According to the UN, the delivery was coordinated with the Syrian government.
In a statement, the Syrian military said it had opened two humanitarian corridors—one to Kobane and another in neighbouring Hasakeh province—to allow the “entry of aid”.
Trading accusations
Kobane is bordered by Turkey to the north and surrounded on all other sides by government forces. It lies about 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the Kurdish stronghold in Syria’s far northeast.
Kurdish forces have accused the Syrian army of imposing a siege on the town.
On Saturday, the Syrian government and Kurdish forces extended a four-day ceasefire by a further 15 days. Damascus said the extension was intended to facilitate the US transfer of IS detainees from Syria to prisons in Iraq, which began earlier this week.
By Sunday night, however, both sides were accusing each other of violating the truce.
The Syrian army told state media that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had targeted its positions using drones.
The SDF, for its part, accused “Damascus-affiliated factions” of launching attacks around Kobane, including one that killed a child.
On Monday, the SDF said it was “repelling a ground assault” on the village of Kharab Ashk, south-east of Kobane, accompanied by “intense artillery shelling”.
“These attacks represent a clear violation of the latest ceasefire agreement,” the SDF said.
The SDF, which has lost large swathes of territory to government forces after weeks of fighting, is now largely confined to Kurdish-majority areas in the northeast and to Kobane.
Kobane, which Kurdish fighters liberated from a prolonged IS siege in 2015, holds strong symbolic significance as their first major victory against the jihadist group.
It took a further four years for the SDF, backed by a US-led international coalition, to defeat IS territorially in Syria.
Syria’s new Islamist authorities are demanding that the SDF disband, while Washington has said the purpose of its alliance with the group has largely come to an end.
On Saturday, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM party warned that the situation in Kobane had escalated from a crisis into a “deadly catastrophe” after sending a delegation to the town.
