New aid convoy enters Druze-majority Sweida province in south Syria

A new humanitarian aid convoy reached southern Syria’s Druze heartland today, official media reports, as the United Nations warns the humanitarian situation in Sweida province is critical after deadly violence.

Clashes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, which began on July 13 and ended with a ceasefire a week later, initially involved Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes, who have been at loggerheads for decades.

But government forces intervened on the side of the Bedouin, according to witnesses, experts and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, which claimed the violence killed more than 1,400 people, mostly Druze, and accused government personnel of summarily executing more than 250 Druze civilians.

State television says today’s Syrian Red Crescent convoy is the third of its kind to reach the province, publishing images of trucks crossing into the region.

State news agency SANA says the 27-truck convoy “contains 200 tons of flour, 2,000 shelter kits, 1,000 food baskets” as well as medical and other food supplies. The effort is a cooperation between “international organizations, the Syrian government and the local community.”

Although the ceasefire has largely held, the UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, says that the humanitarian situation in Sweida province “remains critical amid ongoing instability and intermittent hostilities,” and that the violence had displaced at least 176,000 people.

Israel, which intervened with airstrikes aimed at assisting the Druze community amid the violence, also sent in aid supplies last week.