BEIRUT — Aid workers in
Syria's largest camp
for displaced people face an unprecedented threat, a Kurdish official said on
Sunday, following the murder of a 26-year-old health worker by terrorists.
اضافة اعلان
The
Kurdish Red Crescent on Wednesday
announced the death of a staff member from a gunshot wound "while carrying
out his humanitarian duties" in northeastern Syria's Al-Hol camp.
Two members of Daesh killed the aid
worker after entering the medical center using false identities, according to
the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a
network of sources inside Syria.
Most of Al-Hol's residents are people who
fled or surrendered during the dying days of Daesh’s self-proclaimed
"caliphate" in March 2019.
Al-Hol shelters around 56,000 displaced
people and refugees — including from multiple nations — and most of them
younger than 18, according to latest UN figures.
Since the fall of Daesh, Syria's Kurds and
the
UN have repeatedly urged foreign countries to repatriate their nationals,
but this has only been done in dribs and drabs, out of fear that terrorist
attacks could take place on their soil.
The camp is controlled by the
semi-autonomous Kurdish administration.
"The security situation in the camp is
volatile and cells of IS (Daesh) are still present" in Al-Hol, Chaykhamous
Ahmed, an official with the Kurdish administration, told AFP.
Ahmed said the killing posed a
"dangerous precedent" to humanitarian and medical organizations,
adding that the agencies would continue their work "but not in the
necessary way."
The killing of the aid worker is a reminder
that the security situation in northeast Syria "remains
unacceptable," senior UN aid officials said in a statement Wednesday.
Essential aid can only be delivered
"when steps are taken to address persistent safety issues," they
said.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), one of the
main agencies working in Al-Hol, said in a statement that the killing of the
aid worker was "a further demonstration of the violence and unsafe living
conditions" of the camp.
"Long-term solutions must be found for
the people living in Al-Hol that respect their rights, and ensure the safety of
camp residents and humanitarian workers alike," MSF said.
Since the beginning of 2021 the
Syrian Observatory has recorded 91 murders by Daesh in Al-Hol, with most of the
victims Iraqi refugees. Two of the victims were aid workers.
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