Government siege threatens with “humanitarian disaster” in Aleppo countryside
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – The ongoing siege imposed by the Syrian government on the northern countryside of Aleppo threatens with a “major humanitarian disaster,” an official in Local Administration and Environment Board of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) said on Thursday.
Since November 2022, the government has been besieging areas of Aleppo northern countryside, banning the entry of diesel, drugs, and food products, and “in case the materials reached the region, it would be sold at very high prices,” according to residents.
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. When imposed, its checkpoints near the city of Manbij prevent the entry of fuel, food supplies, medicine, and other necessities from Hasakah to the northern countryside of Aleppo.
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 dubbed “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 42 villages and five camps in the Shahba region since then.
The region has been militarily protected by Russian and Syrian government forces since 2018.
Muhammad Sheikho, co-chair of the Local Administration and Environment Board of Afrin and Shahba region said that the region is suffering due to complete power outage “due to lack of fuel.”
Sheikho, in a voice record, told North Press, “Residents’ life is at risk since we provide them with water from tankers, but we are forced to stop all vehicles in addition to stopping traffic completely,” due to fuel shortage.
All schools are expected to stop and sufferings of patients to increase, according to the official.
What increases sufferings of those people who resorted to camps in Aleppo northern countryside after the earthquakes the country witnessed is the absence of all life aspects, especially with the stifling government months-long siege, according to Sheikho.
He noted that the continuation of the siege will cause the region to be at risk of “a humanitarian disaster.”
Each liter of benzene in the northern countryside of Aleppo is sold at 10,000 Syrian pounds (SYP) and the diesel is sold for 7,000 SYP.
An owner of an internet shop in Shahba region, who preferred to be unnamed, told North Press that the telecommunication network was severed in the morning and that the internet network would cut off late in the day if electricity was not available.
In January, Amnesty International urged 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.”