HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – Fatigue and stress has clearly marked its way on the face of Suad al-Youssef, 47, as she talks about the difficulty of managing her living in a school in Guweiran neighborhood in the city of Hasakah, northeast Syria.
Due to tight financial situation, the displaced woman, who is originally from the village of Anekil al-Hawa, in the countryside of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), is forced to put some wooden panels and nylon curtains so she can have a room for her family in the school corridor.
Al-Youssef was displaced from her hometown during Turkish military operation Peace Spring against Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad in 2019.
“We collect water from a nearby mosque. There is no water or food or water tanks,” she said.
“Many organizations visited the school and promised to install water tanks here, but they did not do so,” she added.
IDPs in shelters in the city of Hasakah, northeast Syria, complain about lack of aids provided by international organizations, operating in the area, the thing that made their living even worse, especially since most of them are incapable of purchasing their basics from markets.
Al-Youssef, who lives with seven members of her family, describes the support provided to them as “very little”, as they receive food baskets and hygiene kits once a month or on bimonthly bases. The received relief aid can hardly last for two weeks, especially since the IDPs mainly depend on them.
Al-Youssef then lists the logistic support she receives, including eight kilograms of rice, four kilograms of lentils, four liters of cooking oil, a couple of shampoo bottles, nine bars of soap, a couple of laundry detergent bags and two bottles of dishwashing liquid.
Turkish forces, with the support of their affiliated Syrian opposition faction, invaded Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad, causing the displacement of about 300,000 individuals, according to the data by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
Some IDPs settled in Washokani and Sere Kaniye camps in Hasakah, and some were distributed in schools within Hasakah and its countryside in addition to schools in other cities. Those, who could afford costs of living, reside in the cities and towns.
The 49-year-old Salem Al-Muhammad, an IDP from the village of Alouk in Sere Kaniye, shares the same suffering as his fellows people at the same school, describing his situation as “tragic”.
Al-Muhammad, while speaking to North Press, repeated more than once; his appeal to the NGOs operating in the region to provide them with support and alleviate the tragedy they are experiencing.
This happens as the UN Security Council continues turning a blind eye to the appeals and cries of both the AANES officials and IDPs not to deprive the region from UN aid.
The council extended, on July 12, the cross-border aid mechanism to Syria through Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey for an additional six months while al-Ya’rubiyah (Tel Kocher) border-crossing, till today, remains closed.
The authorization of aid deliveries through Bab al-Hawa from Turkey has been in place since 2014 and does not require backing from Damascus.
Since July 10, 2020, Bab al-Hawa has been the only crossing kept open to UN aid based on the resolution 2533 (2020), while the use of the others was curtailed.
In July 2014, the UN Security Council adopted the Resolution 2165 which authorized the UN to deliver cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria through four crossings al-Ramtha crossing with Jordan, Bab al-Salam, Bab al-Hawa with Turkey, and al Ya’rubiyah (Tel Kocher) with Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), without the consent of the Syrian government.
Al-Ya’rubiyah (Tel Kocher) border-crossing is located on the Syrian-Iraqi border and was the most official crossing between the two countries prior to the Syrian conflict in 2011.
Prior to the crossing’s closure in 2019, which happed because of Russian-Chinese veto in the UN Security Council, 103 medical facilities were receiving aid across the crossing to northeastern Syria, according to a report by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the Security Council in the beginning of 2020.