ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Displacement across northeast Syria (Rojava) has surged to nearly 300,000 people, far exceeding United Nations estimates, with most sheltering in the besieged Kurdish city of Kobane, an official from the Kurdish-led administration said on Monday.
Sheikhmous Ahmed, who oversees camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees in Rojava, told Rudaw on Tuesday that “the United Nations statistics, which claim that 170,000 people have been displaced, are inaccurate,” adding that the actual number “is double that, reaching nearly 300,000 people.”
He added that a joint committee formed by the Kurdish Red Crescent and the Autonomous Administration is working to compile more accurate data, with results expected to be announced soon.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric announced that “160,000 people are still displaced” as of February 3, with electricity outages disrupting water systems, intermittent communications, constrained food supply chains, and schools still suspended in many areas.
The displacement surge follows a large-scale offensive launched in mid-January by the Syrian Arab Army and affiliated forces against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Rojava’s de facto army, advancing across parts of Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, and Hasaka provinces.
Although the SDF and Damascus later announced an internationally brokered agreement to end hostilities and integrate Rojava’s civil and military institutions under state authority, Kobane in northern Syria has remained under a strict siege for more than three weeks, fueling alarm over worsening humanitarian conditions.
Ahmed highlighted Kobane as the epicenter of the crisis, saying the city alone is hosting over 200,000 displaced people. “Out of this number, 150,000 alone have fled from Raqqa,” he said.
He further alleged that massacres have taken place in dozens of villages south of Kobane, while Kurdish property in Raqqa, Tabqa, and villages south of Kobane have been “looted” and transported toward Idlib.