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Syria
A screenshot from a Rudaw video report at the scene shows the aftermath of the stove explosion at Newroz camp in Derik, northeast Syria on April 4, 2020. Photo: Rudaw TV
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Four people were killed and at least three injured when a kerosene stove exploded at a camp for internally displaced people in northeast Syria on Friday evening, according to on the ground sources, with most of the casualties reported to be children.
The explosion and its resulting fire took place at 6:30 pm while a displaced Arab family prepared dinner in their tent at Newroz Camp in the Hasaka province town of Derik (al-Malikiyah), reported Rudaw's Viviyan Fatah from the scene.
“I am the neighbor of the family … It was heavily raining. We were sitting [in our own tent] and heard an explosion. We hurried there to save them,” an eyewitness who introduced himself as Adil told Fatah. “The fire was so strong that we could not even see the children.”
The dead and three of the injured are children aged between 2 and 12, according to Hawar News Agency (ANHA), a media outlet affiliated with the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES).
Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that four children died and another four were injured.
Known to most Kurds as Rojava, the NES is home to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people and refugees.
Located close to the Iraqi and Turkish borders, Newroz was once almost exclusively home to refugees from Iraq after Islamic State (ISIS) took over swathes of both countries. The camp now houses people displaced from the predominantly Kurdish north Syrian towns of Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad) by a Turkish military operation in October.
“The camp is home for some 800 families with a total number of more than 5,700 people,” SOHR said on Saturday, calling on the international community to “intervene to help displaced persons there.”
Adverse camp conditions are being confounded by the global spread of COVID-19, with local authorities in Syria worried the virus could spread quickly once it enters overcrowded camps comprised of flimsy shelters.
At least ten COVID-19 cases and one death have been recorded by the Syrian government. Though no case of the virus has been confirmed by the NES, strict lockdown measures to prevent its spread have been imposed.
The explosion and its resulting fire took place at 6:30 pm while a displaced Arab family prepared dinner in their tent at Newroz Camp in the Hasaka province town of Derik (al-Malikiyah), reported Rudaw's Viviyan Fatah from the scene.
“I am the neighbor of the family … It was heavily raining. We were sitting [in our own tent] and heard an explosion. We hurried there to save them,” an eyewitness who introduced himself as Adil told Fatah. “The fire was so strong that we could not even see the children.”
The dead and three of the injured are children aged between 2 and 12, according to Hawar News Agency (ANHA), a media outlet affiliated with the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES).
Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that four children died and another four were injured.
Known to most Kurds as Rojava, the NES is home to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people and refugees.
Located close to the Iraqi and Turkish borders, Newroz was once almost exclusively home to refugees from Iraq after Islamic State (ISIS) took over swathes of both countries. The camp now houses people displaced from the predominantly Kurdish north Syrian towns of Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad) by a Turkish military operation in October.
“The camp is home for some 800 families with a total number of more than 5,700 people,” SOHR said on Saturday, calling on the international community to “intervene to help displaced persons there.”
Adverse camp conditions are being confounded by the global spread of COVID-19, with local authorities in Syria worried the virus could spread quickly once it enters overcrowded camps comprised of flimsy shelters.
At least ten COVID-19 cases and one death have been recorded by the Syrian government. Though no case of the virus has been confirmed by the NES, strict lockdown measures to prevent its spread have been imposed.
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