Since the earthquake on February 6th, this area in Syria, controlled by opposition forces who have been fighting Syria’s government led by dictator Bashar al-Assad for almost 12 years, has received barely any aid. Assad has limited aid to this region since the beginning of the civil war, but in 2014 the UN began sending aid through four border crossings. In 2020, Russia, an ally of Assad, shut down three of those routes, leaving only one crossing for the 4.1 million people who rely on aid. The earthquake severely damaged the road to this crossing, preventing any kind of aid from reaching the people here. Weeks later, aid is slowly starting to get through, and Assad has temporarily reopened two other crossings. However, this crucial delay has caused even more suffering, with over 4000 people having already died.