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Rangin Mahmoud and two of her daughters living in a classroom in Qamishli on January 24, 2025. Photo: Screengrab / Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish family from Afrin has spent years displaced, moving from one frontline to another across northern Syria, with each of their children born in a different city. Most recently, they fled Aleppo’s Kurdish neighborhoods to Qamishli in northeast Syria (Rojava) after deadly clashes between Damascus-affiliated forces and Kurdish fighters.
Rangin Mahmoud’s children were born in Afrin, Aleppo, Shahba, and Raqqa - a trail that reflects the family’s displacement since they were first uprooted from Afrin in 2018, when the city fell to Turkish-backed forces.
“I was hospitalized at the Khalid al-Fajr Hospital in Aleppo. There were many civilians - we had all gathered there,” Rangin told Rudaw.
Syrian Arab Army forces and affiliated armed groups attacked the Kurdish neighborhoods of Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud in northern Aleppo, displacing an estimated 150,000 people, according to war monitors.
“Yes, [we were all injured.] We were under heavy bombardment. We stayed at the hospital for a couple of days while the shelling continued. Some people died due to a lack of medicine. We left the hospital at night after buses were provided to evacuate us. My daughter was still in my womb when I was injured. We moved to Raqqa and stayed there for three to five days. She was born there. After another three or four days, we left and headed to Qamishli,” Rangin said.
The Afrin family’s youngest daughter, Deniz, was born during the latest round of fighting. While fleeing the Aleppo clashes, Rangin was wounded in a drone strike when shrapnel struck her chest. Despite her injuries, she reached a hospital, where doctors removed the shrapnel. She gave birth shortly afterward.
Her husband, Rafaat, was also injured in the bombardment. After days of hardship, the family eventually reached Qamishli city, in Rojava’s eastern Hasaka province, where they now live in a single classroom in a school converted into a shelter for displaced families.
It is the same school Rangin’s daughter, Maryam, once hoped to attend - a basic right denied to hundreds of children in Rojava as classrooms become shelters and education gives way to survival.
“We just want to learn,” Maryam, Rangin's daughter, said.
Despite repeated displacement, injury, and loss, Rangin says she remains determined to stay strong for her children and hopes one day to return to Afrin to rebuild the life the war forced them to abandon.
The family’s latest displacement comes as a fragile ceasefire took effect on Tuesday, following deadly fighting that began in mid-January.
During the clashes, the Syrian Arab Army and allied armed groups retook areas in eastern Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, and Hasaka that had been held by the Kurdish-led SDF for nearly a decade. The SDF had controlled these areas after preventing ISIS from seizing them.
The interim defense ministry and the SDF said on Saturday they had agreed to extend a ceasefire by 15 days after an initial four-day truce expired, amid reports of troop mobilizations and tense standoffs.
In parallel, Damascus and the SDF have been holding US-mediated talks to integrate the Kurdish-administered regions and Kurdish-led forces under Syrian state control.
Rangin Mahmoud’s children were born in Afrin, Aleppo, Shahba, and Raqqa - a trail that reflects the family’s displacement since they were first uprooted from Afrin in 2018, when the city fell to Turkish-backed forces.
“I was hospitalized at the Khalid al-Fajr Hospital in Aleppo. There were many civilians - we had all gathered there,” Rangin told Rudaw.
Syrian Arab Army forces and affiliated armed groups attacked the Kurdish neighborhoods of Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud in northern Aleppo, displacing an estimated 150,000 people, according to war monitors.
“Yes, [we were all injured.] We were under heavy bombardment. We stayed at the hospital for a couple of days while the shelling continued. Some people died due to a lack of medicine. We left the hospital at night after buses were provided to evacuate us. My daughter was still in my womb when I was injured. We moved to Raqqa and stayed there for three to five days. She was born there. After another three or four days, we left and headed to Qamishli,” Rangin said.
The Afrin family’s youngest daughter, Deniz, was born during the latest round of fighting. While fleeing the Aleppo clashes, Rangin was wounded in a drone strike when shrapnel struck her chest. Despite her injuries, she reached a hospital, where doctors removed the shrapnel. She gave birth shortly afterward.
Her husband, Rafaat, was also injured in the bombardment. After days of hardship, the family eventually reached Qamishli city, in Rojava’s eastern Hasaka province, where they now live in a single classroom in a school converted into a shelter for displaced families.
It is the same school Rangin’s daughter, Maryam, once hoped to attend - a basic right denied to hundreds of children in Rojava as classrooms become shelters and education gives way to survival.
“We just want to learn,” Maryam, Rangin's daughter, said.
Despite repeated displacement, injury, and loss, Rangin says she remains determined to stay strong for her children and hopes one day to return to Afrin to rebuild the life the war forced them to abandon.
The family’s latest displacement comes as a fragile ceasefire took effect on Tuesday, following deadly fighting that began in mid-January.
During the clashes, the Syrian Arab Army and allied armed groups retook areas in eastern Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, and Hasaka that had been held by the Kurdish-led SDF for nearly a decade. The SDF had controlled these areas after preventing ISIS from seizing them.
The interim defense ministry and the SDF said on Saturday they had agreed to extend a ceasefire by 15 days after an initial four-day truce expired, amid reports of troop mobilizations and tense standoffs.
In parallel, Damascus and the SDF have been holding US-mediated talks to integrate the Kurdish-administered regions and Kurdish-led forces under Syrian state control.
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