QAMISHLI, Syria - For the third time in less than a decade, Kurdish families displaced by conflict have been displaced once again, forced to seek shelter in school classrooms in Qamishli amid harsh weather conditions, as attacks by the Syrian Arab Army and its affiliated groups leave the displaced with nowhere else to go.
Her heart heavy with grief, a 60-year-old woman from Afrin now lives with her family of six inside a small classroom, where they have been staying for seven days.
Her son was killed four years ago, yet repeated displacement continues to define her life.
“I send my greetings to Afrin. Do you know what destruction has befallen Afrin? We came from Afrin to Shahba [as displaced people]. From Shahba, we came to Raqqa. We have been in great distress,” Meisa, a displaced woman from Afrin, told Rudaw on Friday.
“What [more] does the enemy want from us? We are Kurds; what do you want from the Kurds? You want to massacre the Kurds. You killed the little ones; you killed the adults. You killed children and youth - everyone. What do you want from us? For three days now, our children have been sleeping on the ground. We have nothing; we have no money. We have nothing...”
The scale of suffering is visible throughout the school building now turned into a shelter. According to Rudaw correspondent Dilnya Rahman, each floor tells a separate story of loss and uprooting.
“This school has three floors. Truly, on every floor you pass, there is a story - the stories of people from different cities and towns who were displaced from their homes, their ancestral lands, and from places that should have been a warm shelter for them. They are now forced to live in a place that lacks even the most basic necessities,” Rahman said.
Among the displaced is Ahmed Mohammed, whose life was permanently altered by war.