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More than 7,000 Syrians quit camp near Jordan border: UN
BEIRUT, April 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – More than 7,000 people have left a
desperate desert camp for displaced Syrians near the Jordanian border since
March, a United Nations spokesperson said Friday.
According to the UN’s humanitarian coordination office OCHA, around
36,000 people remained in the isolated Rukban camp near Al-Tanf base used by
the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group, after over 4,000 left
between March and April 21.
The Syrian government and key backer Russia said in February they had
opened corridors out of the camp, calling on residents to leave.
“Since March, over 7,300 people have left Rukban,” OCHA spokesman David
Swanson told AFP, including some 3,000 who left after April 21.
Those who have quit the camp have moved to collective shelters in the
central city of Homs or resettled in their areas of origin in the province of
the same name, OCHA said Thursday.
It said Rukban residents were organising their own transportation to the
edge of a de-escalation zone established around Al-Tanf, from where they
either continued in their vehicles or were transferred by private or
government-provided vehicles to four collective shelters in Homs city.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says those
returning to government-held parts of Homs from Rukban had struck so-called
“reconciliation deals” with the Syrian government.
Conditions inside Rukban are dire, with many surviving on just one simple
meal a day, often bread and olive oil or yoghurt, according to one resident.
The camp has been particularly difficult to reach due to its location on
the Jordanian border and the proximity of US forces and the rebels they
support.
In February, a humanitarian convoy of 133 trucks delivered food, clothes,
healthcare items and medical supplies to the camp’s residents. The February 6
delivery was just the second in three months.
Syria’s civil war killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions
since it started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in
2011.
BSS/AFP/RY/1715 hrs