Syria’s Forgotten Displaced Aren’t Equipped to Fight the Pandemic

Refugees displaced from Afrin line up to receive bread from the Syrian Red Crescent in Ahras, Syria, on March 25, 2018. Afshin Ismaeli/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

After a brutal battle to oust the Islamic State in 2016, villages in Shehba, a canton in the Afrin region of northwest Syria, were left in ruins. Shehba—a triangle between the cities of Afrin, Azez, and Aleppo—had suffered three years of occupation by the terrorist group. Pro-Islamic State graffiti and bloodstains lined the walls of the villages.

In January 2018, Turkey launched a cross-border military operation into Afrin to clear the area of the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG), with support from a Syrian rebel force known as the Syrian National Army. Turkey considers the YPG an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which operates inside Turkish borders.