Students attend classes under sunlight in Aleppo northern countryside
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Teachers in the northern countryside of Aleppo, northern Syria, teach students in the open under the sunlight to get some warmth amid a fuel crisis which resulted from the two-month long siege by the Syrian government forces.
The IDPs of Afrin region in the northern countryside of Aleppo accuse the Fourth Armored Division of the government forces of preventing the entry of products and fuel into the northern countryside of Aleppo.
The northern countryside of Aleppo governorate, also known as Shahba region, houses IDPs of the Kurdish city of Afrin which was occupied in 2018 by Turkey following a military operation called “Olive Branch” to push away the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) under the pretext of protecting Turkey’s “national security”.
The operation caused the displacement of about 300.000 of the original inhabitants of the Kurds of Afrin who have been taking shelter in 40 villages and five camps in Shahba region since then.
There are about 16.000 displaced families from Afrin distributed over 42 villages and towns in Shahba region, in addition to 1.870 families, comprising 7.500 individuals, now living in the camps of Barkhodan, Sardam, Afrin, al-Awda, and Shahba, according to the Social Affairs and Labor Board of the Afrin region, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). The board is currently operating in Aleppo northern countryside.
In light of the very cold weather and the siege, these people lack heating oil, which, if was available, is sold at double prices.
The AANES’ Education Committee in Shahba Region suspended school hours in early December 2022, due to the lack of fuel for heating and transportation.
About 15.000 students are studying in the region, 2.000 of whom are in the aforementioned five camps, while the number of students in the preparatory stage is 13.000, according to the Education Committee.
On January 5, an unsubsidized fuel vendor told North Press that the price of one liter of gasoline hiked from 6.000 to 16.000 Syrian pounds (SYP, $1 to $2.7), and that the heating oil was sold at 8.000 SYP, while a household gas cylinder was sold at 125.000 SYP.
The IDPs suffer from difficult living conditions due to the low income for most of the families, which does not exceed 350.000 SYP (about $60), which exacerbated their already hard living conditions under the imposed blockade.
The town of Tel Rifaat, 35 km north of Aleppo city, has been a shelter for thousands of Afrin IDPs since 2018 following the Turkish invasion of Afrin and its countryside.