As a result of the hostilities in North East Syria, already vulnerable families are being forced to flee for safety. Save the Children is working in the three camps to provide much-needed humanitarian aid and support, including tents and food. Photo credit: Save the Children, Oct 2019.
Foreign Women Flee Shelled Camp in North East Syria
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (October 13, 2019) – Save the Children is deeply concerned by troubling reports that hundreds of women and children with links to ISIS have fled an annex of Ain Issa camp in terror after shells fell on the camp in north east Syria this morning.
The annex was home to 249 women and 700 children linked to ISIS.
The reports suggest it is now completely empty of foreign women, and foreign masked men on motorbikes are circling the camp.
Save the Children warned there was a danger that children of foreign nationals could now be lost in the chaos.
“Once again, we urgently call on foreign governments to repatriate their nationals while they can. The opportunity is quickly slipping away,” Save the Children Syria Response Director Sonia Khush said.
“We heard reports that the authorities on the ground took some of the foreign women to another location, but many have fled and some are unaccounted for,” Khush added.
The town of Ain Issa, home to approximately 25,000 people, is completely empty as residents flee to safer areas.
Around 210,000 people have been displaced in Syria in the last three days.
The agency is preparing to scale up its relief operations, which have been continuous since 2014.
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