QAMISHLI, Syria – Kurds in northern Syria celebrated Kurdish New Year, known as Newroz, with bonfires and mass gatherings on Friday despite an official ban on festivities imposed by the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) to prevent the spread of coronavirus. 

Many women in Qamishli used the occasion of Newroz to visit the graves of sons, daughters, husbands, and other relatives killed fighting in the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in recent battles with the Islamic State (ISIS) and Turkish forces.  

The annual festivities, celebrated by Kurds and other ethnicities the world over, comes at a worrying time for governments across the region as they struggle to prevent the further spread of coronavirus, 

The NES announced a raft of measures on Thursday including a complete lockdown due to start at 6am on Monday. Traffic between cities was suspended on Saturday at 6am and all cafes, restaurants, parks, markets, pharmacies, and other amenities were ordered to close down. 

The NES has closed its borders. Hospitals, humanitarian organizations, and emergency cases are exempted from the movement ban. The NES did not mention when the lockdown would be lifted. 

No coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Kurdish-held northern Syria, known to Kurds as Rojava, and no cases have been publicly acknowledged in regime or opposition held areas.

However, experts don’t know how widespread testing is in the war-torn country.   

Syrian Kurds built their own autonomous administration in northern Syria after regime troops withdrew in 2011 to suppress the uprising then sweeping the country. 

The administration expanded its area of influence as its armed wing, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), liberated territory from the Islamic State group (ISIS). 

Turkish attacks on Afrin in early 2018 and border areas of the northeast in October 2019 have weakened the fragile Kurdish administration and displaced thousands of civilians. 

Conflict and instability have left institutions and communities poorly equipped to cope with the pandemic.  

Human Rights Watch warned last week that displaced communities and detainees held in regime and SDF prisons are at particular risk of contracting the virus.

Photos by Delil Souleiman / AFP