QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – In an attempt to stop her children from asking her for dinner before bed, the IDP mother in Newroz camp in the far northeastern Syria tries to distract her children through telling those stories till they fall asleep.
This happens every night because the 38-year-old Mariam Abdullah cannot buy all what her children needs of food, as she forces them to sleep hungry.
Newroz camp, which is located in the countryside of Derik (al-Malikiyah), in northeastern Syria, houses 1.076 families in total of 5.839 individuals, nearly 3.000 of them are children. IDPs there face harsh living conditions due to the absence of humanitarian aid.
It seems that Abdullah, who is from sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) in northeast Syria, is facing difficulties in providing her family’s needs.
“If my son’s T-shirt is worn out I will sew it, he can remain wearing it five months or a year,” she said in her local accent. “I can patch clothes but not his stomach, hunger is unbearable.”
“My children cry at night out of hunger because I have no money to buy food,” she added.
IDPs in the camp said that they consume their food baskets after two weeks of receiving it.
Most of the families in the camp do not have breakfast or dinner because they are unable to buy food.
Three months ago, Abdullah moved to the camp with her six children because she became unable to pay the rent of the house that she has rented three years ago when she was displaced from Ras al-Ain.
While her children were gathered beside their mother, she repeated calling on international organizations to support them during the bad conditions they go through.
“My children are asking me to buy them new clothes for Aid, but since I cannot buy them food, how can I buy them clothes?”
All IDPs in camps and squatter camps run by Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) face the same difficulties and pass through the same harsh conditions due to the lack of humanitarian aid, as their food shares were decreased by 50% after the closure of al-Ya’rubiyah (Tel Kocher) crossing.
The closure of al-Ya’rubiyah (Tel Kocher) border-crossing is still in place, preventing the entry of humanitarian aid into the areas of northeastern Syria. It is located in northeastern Syria on the Syrian-Iraqi border and was the most official crossing between the two countries prior to the Syrian conflict in 2011.
Since January 2020, the crossing has been closed to UN humanitarian aid to northeast Syria due to a Russian-Chinese veto in the Security Council.
Appeals by the AANES’ officials and IDPs to the UN are taking place regularly, asking it to keep providing the area with the needed aid, which will be easy to deliver if al-Ya’rubiyah crossing is reopened.
The AANES was first formed in 2014 in the Kurdish-majority regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira in northern Syria following the withdrawal of the government forces. Later, it was expanded to Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) defeated ISIS militarily.
Two months ago, Russia threatened not to vote in favor of the decision to extend the entry of humanitarian aid into Syria through Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkey, 33 kilometers from the city of Idlib.
In July 2014, the UN Security Council adopted the Resolution 2165 which authorized the UN to deliver cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria through Jordan, Turkey and Iraq without the consent of the Syrian government.
Earlier this month, Sheikhmous Ahmad, head of the Office of Refugees and IDPs’ Affairs of the AANES, said that closing al-Ya’rubiyah crossing has worsened the living conditions for those affected by the war.
In the same camp, the 60-yeat-old Abdullah Abdulqader has the same suffering with other IDPs, as only one food basket each month and a half is insufficient for his 12-member family.
The man who is from the countryside of the town of Tel Tamr, north of Hasakah, and has been living in the camp for three months, demanded international organizations to open the crossings and send support for displaced families.
The 32-year-old Wadha Khedr, who is from Umm al-Keif, 4 km north of Tel Tamr, like other IDPs, is unable to offer food for her six children.
Among a crowd of IDPs women and children, Khedr called on the organizations to reconsider the bad conditions they pass through.
The woman, who lives in the camp since four months ago, said, “The current aid we receive is insufficient.”
“Is it logical to give eight-member family one basket and nine-member family two baskets?” she added wondering.