Report finds sanctioned Syrians benefit from UN contracts

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — A new report has found that the United Nations has procured tens of millions of dollars in contracts with companies linked to Syrian government-backed individuals sanctioned for human rights abuses. Syria’s uprising turned civil war that started in 2011 has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. The report released on Tuesday analyzed the U.N.’s top 100 suppliers in Syria in 2019 and 2020. It concluded that almost half of the procured contracts in those two years were with suppliers who were involved in human rights abuses or may have profited from them.