100+ murders at Kurdish-run camp in Syria, UN claims — Analysis
As the US supports the Syrian Democratic Forces (US-backed), the refugee camp has witnessed a spike in violence from early 2021.
More than 100 people have been murdered at a refugee camp far in Syria’s northeast over the last 18 months, the United Nations said, suggesting that Kurdish militia groups running the crowded facility are struggling to keep its inhabitants safe.
Since January 2021, at least 106 killings have been documented at the al-Hol camp near the border with Iraq, according to the UN’s resident coordinator for Syria, Imran Riza, who said the refugee hub had become a “very harsh place.”
Riza stated that although a lot of murders are still unsolved Riza believes they can be solved. “many”The victims were mostly women. “great deal of gender-based violence”The camp is home to approximately 94% of its residents. Some 94% of its 56,000 residents are women and children, most of whom either fled the Islamic State terrorist group, or are related to IS fighters and become refugees at some point during Syria’s decade-long civil war.
The refugee site in al-Hol has operated on-and-off over the decades, first established during the 1991 Gulf War between the United States and Iraq and later reopened after Washington’s 2003 invasion to topple Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. The US-backed Kurdish militants took over the camp in 2016. It was then surrounded by fierce fighting against IS. With its population steadily increasing to the tens of thousand, it was eventually reoccupied. Riza explained that it now has around 27,000 Iraqi inmates, as well as 19,000 Syrians and 12,000 third-country nationals. She also stated that some Iraqis were repatriated but many countries are reluctant to allow citizens to return home.
“The majority of the population there are children. They are innocent. If you leave them in a place like al-Hol, you’re essentially condemning them to not having a future,”“The UN official continues, argumentating.” “The only solution is emptying the camp.”
While the site is ostensibly overseen by American-backed Kurdish fighters, late last year the US military warned the Islamic State was using the camp for “recruitment and indoctrination,”The terror group tries to regroup and consolidate after major losses at the hands US, Russian and Syrian forces.
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