The earthquake that struck Türkiye and Syria on Monday brought to the forefront an issue Syria has battled with for years: access to foreign aid.
Getting aid to Syria is deeply complicated by its 2011 civil war that has left the country divided into roughly three parts: the government-held areas; a part controlled by the US-backed Kurdish forces; and an opposition-held pocket in the northwest, where nearly two-thirds of its 4.5 million inhabitants have been displaced from elsewhere and a humanitarian crisis was already underway before the quake.
The Syrian government has been sending the fighters and civilians from the areas it reconquered to the already impoverished Idlib province, up against the border
