“Due to the blockade and the lack of transportation and heating fuel, the education process in the canton has been suspended indefinitely,” said the Shahba and Afrin Canton education authority on Sunday.
Ibrahim Shekho, a legal activist from Afrin residing in Shahba, accused the Syrian military of enforcing a blockade on the canton, leading to the closure of schools.
“The fourth division of the Syrian military does not allow fuel to enter, and they impose harsh conditions on the Autonomous Administration, even though they take their share of the financial sums,” Shekho told Rudaw.
Around 14,500 students study at 68 schools and institutions in the Shahba region, according to information obtained by Rudaw.
The region has also been experiencing an electricity blackout over the last three days due to the lack of fuel, causing further hardships for those residing in the IDP camps.
“If the situation continues like this for a week, the Avrin Hospital in Shahba region will also go out of commission, and the work of bakeries and water sources will also be at risk of shutting down,” the activist added.
There is approximately 150,000 thousand people residing in the Shahba region, 100,000 of which are IDPs from Afrin. Around 10,000 of the IDPs reside in camps, while the rest live in various towns and villages.
Shahba is located 15 kilometers north of Aleppo city, and is under the he authority of the Syrian government in terms of security and military, but the affairs of the displaced people of Afrin are managed by the northeast Syria’s Autonomous Administration of Afrin and Shahba.
Afrin city was predominantly populated by Kurds before it was invaded by Turkey and its Syrian proxies, known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), under the pretext of fighting terrorism in March 2018.
