For days, Tel Rifat, as well as surrounding towns – including several IDP camps – and the still self-governing areas of the city of Afrin further west, have been besieged by the so-called SNA. Hundreds of thousands of people, most of whom are displaced persons from Afrîn, are trapped. The Turkish-backed, equipped and controlled Islamist militia force launched its own invasion to occupy the city of Tel Rifat in the shadow of the terrorist organisation Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's (HTS) offensive on Aleppo. The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been calling the city the first target of Turkey's next campaign in northern Syria since 2022.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continue to work to establish a humanitarian corridor to ensure the evacuation of the people of Shehba to other areas in the autonomous region of North and East Syria. However, as the attacks by the self-proclaimed SNA in the region continue, the escape corridor has been severed. In some regions, communication lines have been cut. Human rights organisations fear a massacre of the Kurds in Tel Rifat. Videos are circulating on social media showing SNA mercenaries abducting Kurdish civilians, including women.

In a statement earlier today, the Afrin and Shehba People's Council reported that they have decided to leave the area but vowed to continue their struggle just as they endured all the difficult conditions during the past years in tents and in the open. “In order not to expose our people to massacres and not to kill innocent people, we decided of our own free will to leave the area that was surrounded by mercenaries of the Turkish state,” the Council said.

The people who settled in the neighboring Shehba region after the Turkish state occupied and annexed Afrin in 2018, started to set out for Tabqa this afternoon due to the threat of a mass slaughter.

The first group arrived in Tabqa Canton. They were welcomed by the people and institutions of the canton and temporarily settled in pre-prepared places such as schools, buildings of governmental institutions and sports centres. Approximately 200,000 people in Shehba are expected to be transferred to the region.

Preparations such as food, beverages and health support are also underway in these centres.