Kurdistan Red Crescent sends batches of aid to displaced in Afrin

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Red Crescent (KRC) on Monday said it had sent batches of aid convoys from the Syrian Kurdistan city of Qamishli to displaced civilians in Afrin.

Sheikhmos Moussa, a representative of the KRC, said the aid was being sent to the displaced civilians from Afrin who now live in the Shahba area, southeast of Afrin, following the Turkish army’s takeover of the Kurdish-held enclave last week.

“Fifteen thousand food baskets are being processed, and we are sending them in batches, each with four trucks,” Moussa told Kurdistan 24.

According to the Kurdish Red Crescent representative, 1,600 baskets of aid containing food and medical supplies had arrived on Monday with six more trucks on their way.

Turkish and Syrian rebel forces overtook the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin on March 18 where they declared full control following a nearly two-month long offensive against the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Ankara, who launched its military incursion in January, claimed the operation was meant to secure its borders of YPG forces which it argues are an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), thus “terrorists.”

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced from the Kurdish region and are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, according to reports by the World Health Organization.

“The aid is being sent through the areas controlled by the Syrian regime, so it cannot be sent in one go,” another member of the KRC, Farhan Sulaiman, told Kurdistan 24.

Sulaiman added that plans were underway to establish a camp for the displaced persons where medicine and food would be provided.

The convoys of aid contain items donated by Kurds living in Europe as well as the Kurdistan Region.