What’s going on in Syria ?

Damaged roads in northern Syria making help difficult - Unicef

Melinda Young, Unicef’s senior emergency advisor for the whole of Syria, says getting aid into the country's north is very difficult at the moment. BBC NEWS

Young says many roads are damaged, especially at the main border crossing, making it more difficult to get aid supplies sent across from Turkey to organisations working in Syria.

Many water systems in the area are also heavily damaged, she says, adding that it is having to be taken in trucks until systems are repaired. She says that can take at least six months.

She says the situation is particularly difficult for the children there, who have already gone through years of conflict, with many displaced during that period.

She adds that a cholera outbreak since September, the country's economic collapse, "and the fact we're coming into a drought.... all of these compounded crises come atop the trauma of the earthquake itself."