Earthquake makes dozens houses in Aleppo countryside Uninhabitable
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Due to the Feb. 6 earthquake that struck Syria 240 houses in the northern countryside of Aleppo were damaged and more than 40 others have become no longer suitable for living, an official in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), said on Wednesday.
Mustafa Rashid, an official in the Development and Planning Office affiliated with the AANES said the devastating earthquake and the ongoing siege by the Syrian government forces on the region have aggravated the suffering of Afrin IDPs in the Aleppo northern countryside.
Dozens of thousands of displaced people from the city of Afrin, northwest Syria, live in the town of Tel Rifaat and its countryside in houses that are already cracked by war in recent years.
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, currently operating in Aleppo northern countryside.
The area has been militarily protected by Russian and Syrian government forces since 2018.
“Infrastructure was already almost completely destroyed. After people fled Afrin, the AANES slightly renovated infrastructure; however, the earthquake struck everything down,” Rashid said.
Despite the conditions Shahba region is going through, more than 3.500 families from the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyeh in Aleppo resorted to Tel Rifaat, fearing the collapse of residential buildings.
The two neighborhoods, in addition to the IDPs camps and villages in the northern countryside of Aleppo 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 control of Afrin in 2018.
The two neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh 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.
Rashid said they sheltered newcomers in camps whereas some people slept in their cars and others stayed with their relatives living in the region.
He stressed that the IDPs are facing extremely cold temperatures and a shortage in blankets, “apart from the fact that each tent now contains more than two families and we can offer them only bread as the Syrian government bans aid access.”
The government has been imposing a crippling siege on Aleppo northern countryside as well as preventing the entry of relief aid, fuel, and medicine for six months.
So far, the AANES has not managed to send any aid to the besieged Shahba struck by the earthquake.