Afrin IDPs set up tents for fear of aftershocks
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Dozens of the displaced people of Afrin who reside in the northern countryside of Aleppo, northern Syria, have set up tents in farmlands for fear of new aftershocks after their houses were cracked as a result of the Feb. 6 earthquake.
At dawn on Feb. 6, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and northwest Syria, killing about 46.000 individuals. It also caused the destruction of hundreds of buildings, leaving many people homeless.
The people have set up small tents in the farmlands close to their houses after most of the houses were damaged due to the catastrophic earthquake and aftershocks.
The northern countryside of Aleppo, locally 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, northwest Syria, who have been taking shelter in 40 villages and five camps in Shahba Region since then.
A source in the town of Tel Rifaat in Shahba Region said more than 5.000 tents were set up following the earthquake.
The Shahba Region has been subjected to a siege by the Syrian government for nearly three months, which has reflected negatively on the residents’ livelihood amid an economic crisis and collapse of the Syrian pound against foreign currencies.
Since the displacement of the residents of Afrin in 2018, the Fourth Armored Division of the government forces has repeatedly imposed suffocating sieges on the area. Its checkpoints near the city of Manbij prevent the entry of fuel, food supplies, medicine, and other necessities from Hasakah to the area.
Randa Ali, 19, said they were forced to sleep under the tents for fear of aftershocks.
“The house we are living in has been cracked as a result of the first earthquake, so we do not dare to sleep in,” she told North Press.
The Feb. 6 earthquake caused partial damage to 240 houses and complete damage to 40 ones, according to a former statement by Mustafa Rashid, an official in Shahba Region.