Following the liberation of Kobanê city as work continues on reconstruction residents are returning to find widespread shortages of fundamental necessities. Kobanê Canton Co-president Enver Müslim said: "It is a humane duty to meet the needs of the people of Kobanê.”  

The YPG and YPJ carried on an epic resistance for more than four months to liberate Kobanê after ISIS gangs launched attacks on the city on 14 September 2014. People from all over Kurdistan and from further afield mobilised in support of the resistance. Residents of Kobanê who took refuge in the district of Suruç in Urfa province and other cities have begun to return. It is reported that close to 70 thousand of the 100,000 people who took refuge in the tent cities of Suruç have returned to Kobanê. As the supply of aid has decreased, supplies in the depots in both Kobanê and Suruç are running dangerously low.

Kobanê Canton Co-president Enver Muslim said that while Kobanê city had been liberated conflict was continuing on three fronts outside the city. Muslim added that there were widespread shortages of basics such as food and water. "There is no milk for children,” he said, adding that due to the ongoing war people were not able to engage in agriculture this year. He said they also needed seeds and fuel.

'Kobanê needs international support’

Muslim said that ISIS had blown up the water towers in Kobanê, leading to a severe shortage of water. He added that in order to overcome the destruction wrought by the war Kobanê needed the solidarity of the people of Kurdistan and international support. He said that while the people and municipalities of North Kurdistan had done their utmost to help, he complained that human rights organisations had not done enough.

'Depots are emptying, no aid is reaching the people’

Muslim said the people of North Kurdistan had provided most of the aid during the last 8 months, but that now depots were depleted and that people were no longer receiving aid. He called for more support from international organisations and in particular for an aid corridor and the border to be opened.