RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – After she was displaced from her village in the northern countryside of Raqqa Governorate, north Syria, Firyal awaits to get a tent that could accommodate her in a camp that has become the sole safe haven from death.
Firyal al-Ahmad, 45, from the village of al-Fatsah, 50 km north of Raqqa, left her house and was displaced to the Tel al-Samen IDP camp with her family as Turkish indiscriminate shelling becomes more intense day after another.
Tel al-Samen camp, 35 km north of Raqqa, was established by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) to accommodate IDPs from Tel Abyad and Ain Issa towns after the military operation carried out by Turkish forces and the affiliated armed opposition factions, known as Syrian National Army (SNA).
On October 9, 2019, the Turkish forces and their affiliated SNA factions launched a military operation against the city of Tel Abyad in the north of Raqqa and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) in the north of Hasakah.
The operation, named “Peace Spring”, led to the occupation of the two cities and their countryside in addition to the displacement of more than 300.000 of the original inhabitants.
Following the Turkish incursion into northeastern Syria in October 2019, Turkey signed two ceasefire agreements, one with Russia and the other with the US stipulating ceasing all hostilities and the withdrawal of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) 32 km away from the Turkish border.
The SDF withdrew from the border areas according to the agreement, but Turkey continues targeting the area.
Al-Ahmad, a mother of five, said her house was destroyed by the shelling. She has come to the camp for more than a month owing to fears over her children’s lives.
However, she was not given entry to the camp to reside in under lack of tents until a family accepted to share its tent with the family of Firyal. Now, 16 people live under the tent.
The camp is overcrowded by IDPs that pushes a number of families to share tents with new coming ones. There is a lack in the number of tents amid increased shelling by the Turkish forces and the affiliated SNA factions on the area.
Ibrahim al-Ibrahim, 42, an IDP who comes from the town of Suluk and has eight children, said the increased numbers of the IDPs aggravate their suffering in the camp. There are two families under each tent.
He added that there are now 100 families who came to the camp fleeing Turkish shelling and repressive acts by armed factions, “There remains nowhere safe except for the camp. Here is more secure.”
Three years ago, Ibrahim was displaced to the camp in the aftermath of the Turkish operation into northeast Syria. The SNA factions controlled Ibrahim’s town. There had been neither security nor peace, amid difficult living conditions, among others; Ibrahim was forced to leave the town.
Although living conditions in the camp are dire, Ibrahim prefers to remain, “The camp is no better than my house but it is better to share a life with ‘strangers’.”
Ibrahim pointed out that his town has become house to the SNA militants from different nationalities who took possession of IDPs’ houses.
Tel al-Samen IDP camp has right now 1.246 families, in total of 6.448 individuals mostly women, children and elderly. They suffer from lack services and aid provides by humanitarian relief organizations due to the rapid increase in the number of newcomers recently.
The vast majority of the families in the camp suffer from overcrowdedness as they host other closed ones that could number 15 or more in some cases.
Due to kinship, Ibrahim al-Jassem, 48, an IDP from the countryside of Ain Issa, hosts a five-member family under his tent. Ibrahim himself has eight children mostly adults.
Al-Jassem said in vernacular, “We were displaced to keep our dignity. We have become nonentity. We cannot be given a tent.”
Al-Jassem holds officials of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) accountable to look into IDPs’ situation and to provide aid ad tents to the families that have recently come to the camp for they can go nowhere.
Ali al-Ebbo, an official in the camp, said 225 families applied for admission after they had fled the battlefield. “This is a big number, the camp cannot accommodate them,” al-Ebbo said.