Thousand flee Aleppo amid offensive to root out Daesh
manbij (Syria) — More than 65,000 people have been forced to flee fighting in northern Syria, ravaged in recent weeks by dual offensives on the Daesh group, the United Nations said on Sunday.
The UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) said that tens of thousands of people have left their homes in northern Aleppo province, particularly around the former militant stronghold of Al Bab.
“This includes nearly 40,000 people from Al Bab city and nearby Taduf town, as well as 26,000 people from communities to the east of Al Bab”, OCHA said.
Turkey-backed rebels seized Al Bab from Daesh on February 23 after several months of fighting.
OCHA said the nearly 40,000 people displaced from the town fled north to areas controlled by other rebel forces, and that the “high contamination” of unexploded bombs and booby traps set by retreating militants was complicating efforts to return.
And since February 25, OCHA said, another 26,000 people fled violence further east, where Syrian forces supported by Russian air power have also been waging a fierce offensive against Daesh.
Many of those fleeing the violence sought refuge in areas around Manbij, a town controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
A correspondent in Manbij said that long queues of families were forming at checkpoints leading to the town on Sunday. Pick-up trucks full of children and women wearing full black veils were being searched individually by SDF personnel before being allowed to enter.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Saturday that 30,000 people had been displaced by the government’s offensive on Daesh militants.
The Russian-backed push is aimed at Daesh-held Khafsah, the main station pumping water into Aleppo. Residents of Syria’s second city have been without mains water for 48 days after the militants cut the supply. Government forces retook full control of the city last year.
On Sunday, Russian and government warplanes bombarded Daesh positions in support of Syrian troops, which had advanced to around 14km from Khafsah, the Observatory said.
Since war broke out in Syria in March 2011, more than half of its population has been forced to flee their homes. Aleppo province hosts tens of thousands of displaced Syrians, many in camps near the Turkish border.
“We left our homes with nothing: no fuel, no bread. Our children are starving,” said Jumana, a 25year old Syrian woman who fled the clashes with her two children.
“Daesh as shelling us, the airplanes were hitting us. Our children were terrified. We were barely able to save ourselves,” she said on the outskirts of a village around 18km from Manbij. —