Syrian Kurds hand over IS woman and child back to Sudan

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Syrian Kurds on Thursday handed over a Sudanese woman affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) and her 8-month-old son to Sudanese authorities in the city of Qamishlo.

The Foreign Affairs committee of the Jazira Administration handed Nada Saad and her son over to Hisham Othman Mahjoub, an advisor at the Sudanese Embassy in Damascus.

Abdulkarim Omar, the co-head of the Foreign Affairs committee in the Jazira Administration, said in a press conference that the woman and her child, who the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested, were extradited to Sudanese authorities at the request of the Republic of Sudan.

Omar noted that Saad had joined IS in the earlier period of the extremist group’s emergence, adding the exchange was made “based on humanitarian principles and based on the international treaties.”

“Without any pressure or coercion, Mrs. Nada and her child are in good health, and we thank the Sudanese government for its legal and moral duty by receiving its citizens.”

The Sudanese official, Hisham Mahjoub, expressed his gratitude to the Democratic Self-Government in northern Syria for their humanitarian assistance and support.

According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, the SDF are holding about 2,000 women and children who are affiliated with IS in three displacement camps. These women and children come from over 40 countries.

Moreover, 600 foreign IS fighters are kept in prison cells.

The SDF says they are holding them temporarily until their countries take them back. So far, only Russia, Indonesia, and more recently the US are publicly known to have taken back some of their nationals from these camps.

The New York Times reports that the US military has helped the SDF upgrade prison facilities, spending about $1.6 million, after some IS prisoners escaped.

“We have repeatedly called on the nations of the world to come forward, claim their citizens and bring them to justice in their home countries,” US Army Spokesperson Colonel Thomas Veale said in June.

“We know from past experience that detention centers are a breeding ground for radicalism. We cannot afford to allow this issue to go unresolved. It’s a global issue that requires a global solution.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany