2,000 Kurdish families in Aleppo camps lack clean water – Watchdog
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – About 2,000 Kurdish families in five IDP camps in the northern countryside of Aleppo, northwestern Syria, are facing a severe water shortage, a monitoring group said on Monday.
The families that hail from the Kurdish-majority region of Afrin have suffered a severe water shortage “with the situation rapidly escalating towards a major, life-threatening humanitarian crisis,” the UK-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said.
Those families have left their hometown and taken shelter in 42 villages and five camps in Aleppo northern countryside (locally known as Shahba Region) after Turkey occupied Afrin following a military operation dubbed “Olive Branch” against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) under the pretext of protecting the Turkish national security.
The operation caused the displacements of about 300,000 of the original Kurdish inhabitants of Afrin who have been taking shelter in villages and camps in Shahba Region, ever since.
Those 2,000 displaced families from Afrin are distributed in over 42 villages and towns in Shahba Region, and in the camps of Barkhodan, Sardam, Afrin, al-Awda, and Shahba.
The area has been militarily protected by Russian and Syrian government forces since 2018.
Since Feb.15, the UNICEF has halted its operations of delivering water to those areas.