Syria’s Hawl Camp: 12 murders in the first week of 2021
HAWL, Syria (North Press) – 12 murders were documented in one week in Syria’s Hawl Camp, which is the highest weekly toll in the camp to date.
“Shooting, using a silencer, and using sharp tools to kill are the most used methods,” Hamrin al-Hassan, an administrator in the camp, told North Press.
Al-Hassan did not hide her fears that the bloody situation would worsen if the rest of the camp’s residents kept silent regarding the identity of the perpetrators.
Three women were killed out of 12 people, four of which were Syrian IDPs and eight of which were Iraqi refugees, according to the camp administration.
It is expected that the camp’s administration will meet with a delegation from the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS; the security situation in Hawl camp tops the agenda of the meeting, according to al-Hassan.
The camp was originally established to accommodate Iraqi refugees in early 1991 during the second Gulf War, and it reopened later after the US intervention in Iraq, formed from three camps on the Syrian-Iraqi border.
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) reopened it early 2016 to accommodate the displaced fleeing the areas of battles with ISIS.
From time to time, smuggling operations are carried out for families of ISIS fighters from the camp, which houses about 11,000 women and children from ISIS families from about 54 countries, who are held in a separate section of the camp known as the Section of Foreigners or Muhajirat Women. They are known for being extremist in their views, according to the camp administration.
There are 2,625 foreign ISIS families, or a total of 8,965 people, in the camp, according to Refugees Office chair of the Autonomous Administration Sheikhmous Ahmed.
The number of Syrian families in Hawl Camp has reached 6,155, with a total of 22,231 people, and 8,284 Iraqi families, with a total of 30,706 people, according to Ahmed.
In October, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, based on the initiative launched by the Syrian Democratic Council and the wishes of the tribes’ notables and sheikhs, decided to evacuate Syrian families who wished to leave Hawl Camp.
“We are continuing to send families out of the camp, until the camp is emptied of Syrians wishing to leave,” Ahmed told North Press in a previous statement.