Displaced Syrian Kurds face medical shortages

QAMISHLI, Syria - Displaced Kurds in northeast Syria (Rojava) are facing shortages of life-saving drugs and have limited access to medical aid amid a tightening siege around Qamishli, families in the city have warned.

According to the local health department in Qamishli, a Kurdish-held city on the Turkish border, nearly 1,000 displaced people are ill and more than 400 have chronic diseases.

A physician said that 59-year-old Rashid Mustafa has fluid in his chest and infections, warning that without medical intervention his life will be at risk.

“I have stomach ulcers and my leg is injured,” Mustafa told Rudaw on Tuesday. “I need pills for hypertension and inflammation but [medical workers] say they don’t have them.”

A major Syrian military offensive has displaced more than 100,000 civilians in Kurdish-held areas of northern Syria, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told Rudaw on Monday.

An estimated 72,000 people and 3,000 families are sheltering in mosques, schools and buildings still under construction.

Since early January, the Syrian Arab Army and allied armed groups have attacked areas held by the Kurdish-held Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for nearly a decade - territories that the Kurdish-led forces had previously liberated from the Islamic State (ISIS). The new Syrian government launched the offensives to pressure autonomously-run Kurdish areas and security forces to fall under the central government, with talks underway between Damascus and Kurdish leaders.

As fighting has flared, deteriorating security conditions throughout the north have forced residents to flee to Qamishli and other northeastern Syrian towns and cities. In addition to fleeing Hasaka, a major center of the Kurdish-led local government, about 1,500 families who were sheltering in Afrin have relocated to Qamishli, a Kurdish Red Crescent official told Rudaw. Tens of thousands of Kurdish residents fled Aleppo to Afrin as the Syrian army seized the city’s Kurdish-held neighborhoods earlier this month.

Among those who fled Afrin for Qamishli is 7-year-old Khalil Hassan. His psoriasis has gone untreated due to drug shortages and costs, and has now spread across his entire body.

Chronic illnesses are widespread among the displaced, yet access to medicine and doctors remains scarce.

Diabetes medication shortages have impacted Younis Mohammed, another displaced Kurd, who lost his legs in the war and now fears further complications. Hospitalized without treatment, he said, “I don’t have enough medicine.”

“I have nothing and no one checks on me. I need medicine. We don't have cash, either,” Mohammed added.

Tensions remain high despite a fragile ceasefire between the SDF and Damascus, which is in place until February 8 for the US to transfer ISIS prisoners to Iraq after multiple prison breaks. The SDF has accused armed groups affiliated with Damascus, who are not covered by the ceasefire, of repeatedly launching attacks including on Kobane and Hasaka on Tuesday.

Rudaw on Tuesday sent 80 trucks carrying 800 tons of aid to Rojava and the UN on Monday sent a 24-truck aid convoy into Kobane, another major Kurdish stronghold that is also under siege.