Ibrahim Şêxo, a member of the Afrin-Syria Human Rights Administration, spoke to the Firat News Agency (ANF) about the situation in Northern and Eastern Syria. He said that recent attacks carried out across a wide area stretching from Deir Hafir, Maskanah (Meskene), Sirrin (Sirîn), and Tabqa (Tebqa), particularly in areas where camps housing people forcibly displaced from Afrin are located, were pushing the region toward a major catastrophe.
Şêxo said that more than 40,000 forcibly displaced people were living in the camps in Tabqa and continued as follows: “More than 40,000 people who were forcibly displaced from Afrin were staying in the Tabqa camps, most of them women and children. However, they were once again forced to flee from the camps in Tabqa and Raqqa (Reqa) and moved toward the cities of Qamishlo and Amuda (Amûdê). In addition, following reports of attacks on Hesekê, those who had already been forcibly displaced in Hasakah were once again forced to migrate to other areas.”
Şêxo said that the situation had become even more severe amid the silence of international powers and continued as follows: “All schools, mosques, and public service centers have been opened to accommodate those who were forcibly displaced. At the same time, there is a serious fuel shortage in these cold weather conditions. All assistance provided to the forcibly displaced is covered through the efforts of the local population and local initiatives, aid organizations from Southern Kurdistan (Başur), the Kurdish Red Crescent, and support from the people of Southern Kurdistan. The large number of forcibly displaced people, the existing hardships, and the silence of international actors are making this situation even more difficult.”
Şêxo went on to stress that international official institutions must take responsibility for what is happening. He said that assistance to displaced people was continuing within the limits of available resources, adding that international institutions also had a responsibility to respond to the situation.
Ibrahim Şêxo drew particular attention to the people of Afrin, saying that the situation of those forcibly displaced from Afrin must be addressed, and issued the following call to international organizations. Şêxo said: “International silence, and the lack of response to the crimes committed, and the violations carried out, reveals a form of complicity. International legal and humanitarian organizations must fulfill their moral and legal responsibilities and make an urgent appeal to the United Nations to ensure that the needs of the forcibly displaced are met immediately. Ignoring these calls will lead to a major humanitarian catastrophe.”