More than 200,000 people who fled a Turkey-led offensive on the Kurdish town of Afrin are without shelter or access to food and water in nearby areas, a Syrian Kurdish official from Afrin told Reuters on Monday.
“The people with cars are sleeping in the cars, the people without are sleeping under the trees with their children,” Hevi Mustafa, a top member of the Kurdish civil authority in the Afrin area, told Reuters by phone.
Turkish forces backed by Syrian rebel groups swept into Afrin town on Sunday, raising their flag in the town centre and declaring full control after an eight-week campaign to drive out Kurdish YPG fighters. Mustafa said civilians still in Afrin town were facing threats from the Turkey-backed groups.