Siege on Kurdish majority Syrian areas violates human rights – Amnesty
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Amnesty International urged on Tuesday the Syrian government to lift the siege imposed on predominantly Kurdish areas in Aleppo neighborhoods and its northern countryside, as it “violates human rights through the obstruction of residents’ access to fuel and basic needs.”
Diana Semaan, an Amnesty researcher quoted in a report, said, “It is abhorrent to see the Syrian authorities depriving tens of thousands of residents in Aleppo of essential supplies for political considerations.”
The Fourth Armored Division of the Syrian government forces has imposed a siege on the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah in Aleppo and on the northern countryside, locally known as Shahba region, for the past three months. Fuel, food products, baby formula, and medications are prevented from entering these areas.
Both Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods, northern Aleppo, are semi-autonomous and run by a civil administration.
The two neighborhoods, in addition to the IDPs camps and villages in Shahba region are housing the IDPs of Afrin who fled the violations and the invasion of the Turkish army and the Turkish-backed armed opposition factions since their occupation of Afrin in 2018.
The two neighborhoods have become a safe haven for many people from both inside and outside the city of Aleppo. This has led to the activation of trade and industrial movement, but the Syrian government besieges them frequently.
Also, both Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh enjoy security and stability better than that of the other neighborhoods in Aleppo, which made them to be a target of the armed opposition factions several times.
The neighborhoods are separated from the other neighborhoods in Aleppo by three government security checkpoints; Ashrafiyeh, Awared, and Maghsalat al-Jazira.
“Civilians are living in constant fear, deprivation and uncertainty, and are once again paying the highest price in this seemingly endless conflict,” said Semaan, Syria researcher at the NGO’s Beirut office.
“International humanitarian law prohibits the use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare,” according to the report.
The NGO urged the Syrian government to take immediate action to end the humanitarian crisis by allowing fuel, other essential supplies and humanitarian aid into the aforementioned areas.
Amnesty International said, citing residents of the neighborhoods, that the Fourth Armored Division has opened a smuggling route through which it sells small amounts of fuel at “exorbitant prices.”
The report cites a doctor working at a local hospital saying, “We are very worried that we will run out of fuel to operate the hospital’s generator.”
In addition, residents of the region have not received food aid since the start of the siege.
A humanitarian organization which was planning on providing support to a medical facility in Sheikh Maqsoud had postponed the project, pending approval by the government, according to a resident from the region.