Farmers in Kobani demand Self-Administration a compensation for the burning of crops

The farmers of  Kobani / Ain Al-Arab demanded the Self-Administration, a compensation for the burning of agricultural crops, the main resource for the residents of the region. The cases have recurred in the region recently. 

Fires broke out several times in the past two weeks in the western villages of Kobani, and thousands hectares of crops have been consumed in the past two days, in the time the “Islamic state” adopted this burning , according to a report released by the organization’s newspaper Al-Naba’.

Last Saturday, fires I villages of south Kobani burned about 1,500 hectares of wheat, barley, and olive trees as a result of electrical fire, and the flame started from Qajr village 20 km south of the city and extended to more than 25 km, it also reached Heji, Karuz, Tutank and Khanik Khalian villages,

The residents attribute the reason for the burning of these lands to the ineffectual response and lack of preparedness of the Civil Defense, in addition to the move of most of the harvesters toward the eastern areas for money, according to the residents.

Mahmoud Khalil Rasho, 40 -year-old, from Heji village, south of Kobani, demand the Self-Administration  to compensate farmers for the burned lands and to investigate the cause of fire, mentioning that most of the harvesters in the region headed towards the eastern regions, referring to Raqqa, Deir Ez-Zour, Al-Hasaka and Al-Jazira.

  

“Because of the burning of the agricultural crop, we have nothing,  and our condition is very bad, ” Rasho said.

 “The firefighters were not ready to extinguish the fire, two out of five firetrucks  arrived to the village, one of them broke down, and the other could not extinguish the fire.”

He blamed the Self-Administration on allowing the harvesters to leave the area before harvesting their crops, and the result was losing the agricultural produce of the year.

“There are no harvesters for our land, and my entire 70-hectare crop had burned, so we demand the Self-Administration to compensate us, because we had lost everything,” Mohammed Fustaq, 50-year-old, from Karuz village said.

Furthermore, most of the farmers borrowed money for purchasing seeds, to pay it back after harvesting their crops, but the fire prevented that and  caused loss more than the years of drought did in the area.