Five displaced civilians from Afrin die at Aleppo hospital due to medicine shortage

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Five civilians displaced from Syrian Kurdistan’s (Rojava) Afrin region have died at a hospital in Aleppo due to a shortage of medicine, hospital officials said on Monday.

According to officials at the Mohammed Shekho hospital in Syria’s Aleppo Province, five civilians from Afrin have succumbed to their illnesses, among them a 1-year-old baby.

A Turkish-led offensive into Rojava’s Afrin earlier this year resulted in the death of over 250 civilians and displacement of tens of thousands of others.

Ankara launched the campaign in January, arguing it was meant to clear its southern border of the threat posed by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) who it says has ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), thus labeling them “terrorists.”

The United States has supported the YPG, who make a majority of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the ongoing fight against the so-called Islamic State.

The months-long offensive, which reached its climax in March, received condemnation from human rights organizations who criticized Turkey for ignoring large-scale rights abuses in areas under its control.

Some of those displaced persons from Afrin now reside in Aleppo and continue to suffer many hardships due to the attacks on their homes.

Many of these displaced persons often die from their illnesses as there is a shortage of medicine available at the clinics and hospitals where they are treated.

Officials at the Mohammed Shekho hospital warn that the lives of several people is at serious risk as they are in desperate need of medicine.