HASAKAH, Syria, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- As a result of the violent situation in northeastern Syria, displacement hit a new high with all schools filled with displaced people, pushing others to seek refuge in the desert.
In the Twaineh area 10 km west of the northeastern city of Hasakah, the Kurdish militia set up a new refugee camp called Washokani for the increasing number of civilians fleeing the Turkish-led campaign that has been ongoing against the Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria since Oct. 9.
Most of the civilians are fleeing from border areas between Syria and Turkey, such as Ras al-Ayn and Tal Tamr among other border areas.
In the camp, white tints are aligned next to each other in that desert area, which lacks all necessary means for a proper life.
The most striking are the small children. They wear shabby clothes, drink water from unclean pots and have their food in an unhealthy atmosphere.
People in the camp are complaining about their situation and how they had to flee their homes as a result of the battles in the border region.
Hamid Misleh, 30, had to flee his home in the countryside of Tal Tamr area in of Hasakah as a result of the situation there, as activists have reported exchange of mortar fire and heavy machine guns north of Tal Tamr, between the Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Turkey-loyal rebel factions in recent days.
"As you can see, people are now staying in desert areas and suffering from cold. This is indescribable, and people have suffered like never before," he told Xinhua.
For Ibrahim Sharaf, 50, who fled the city of Ras al-Ayn on the Syrian-Turkish border, enduring the shelling was out of the question, especially when a woman in a neighboring village was killed with her toddler when a shell slammed nearby.
"People escaped the shells that rained down on them. The shelling drove them crazy as it was raining. A woman and her child were killed by mortar fire in a nearby village, and this is why we had to flee," he said.
Wearing a scarf on her head and covering her face from the desert is Fatima Mikhwel, a 40-year-old woman from the town of Um al-Kheir in the Hasakah countryside. The woman said she was going to the desert to flee the violence in her area, but she got relieved when she was told about the new camp.
"Our town has become so unsafe with the ongoing confrontation so we escaped from our homes. We wanted to flee to the desert but we heard about this camp, so we came," she said.
In another tint, Tarek Bardan was sitting with his family of five after he could not get a place to stay at in the Hasakah city.
He told Xinhua all schools are jam-packed with displaced people.
"We witnessed clashes and people got displaced. Now people are in the camps and the schools are full of displaced people," he told Xinhua.
Following the Oct. 9 military campaign by Turkey against the Kurdish militia groups, which are deemed as terrorists by Ankara, a total of 84 displacement centers were opened for the displaced people.
The newly established camp in Twaineh area is now home to 200 families amid an increasing number of new arrivals as a result of the ongoing military showdown and the lack of places in displacement centers in Hasakah.
Recent estimates suggest that the Turkish military campaign in northern Syria has displaced more than 200,000 people, according to the United Nations.
