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On 6 February, an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude struck near Gaziantep in Turkey. Across the border in Syria, strong tremors were felt and buildings, weakened by years of conflict, collapsed in huge numbers. Now, 23 days later, the casualties stand at more than 44,000 in Turkey and over 6,000 in Syria.

The earthquake is one of the worst natural disasters of the century. In Turkey and in government-controlled Syria, aid efforts were quickly underway, but in the parts of north west Syria under opposition control, the picture was markedly different, with UN humanitarian assistance very slow to react. What went wrong?