Alwaght- sit-in of residents of the two besieged Syrian towns of Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya has now passed its first month.
The two towns are located in northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, only 30 kilometers from the Turkish borders. Only 10 kilometers separate Idlib city from Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya and 3 kilometers separate the two towns from each other.
A series of terrorist groups like Ahrar al-Sham and Al-Nusra Front are in control of Binnish and Maarrat Masrin twons where border Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya. But so far the terrorists failed to seize the two towns' control due to strong resistance to the seizure attempts shown by the counter-occupation popular units. The militants of Al-Nusra Front and Jaish al-Fatah in March 2015 blockaded the cities preventing any food or medicine from entering.
87 percent of the Syrian population are Muslims, with 74 percent being Sunnis and 13 being Shiites. The Shiites of Syria are divided into three sects, the Alawites, Twelvers, and Ismailis. A majority of the Syrian Shiite are living in the capital Damascus, Idlib, Latakia, and Homs. Among Shiite hubs of the country, the Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya Shiites are seen as the traditional residences of the Shiite Muslims in the Levant region. The two towns have a population of about 50,000, with 35,000 living in Al-Fu’ah and 15,000 in Karriya.
The towns' significance
Having in mind that vast swaths of Idlib are held by the terrorists, Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya capture can mark a completion of Idlib seizure which is of importance due to bordering Turkey and three provinces of Latakia, Aleppo, and Hama provinces. Idlib's full capture will realize Al-Nusra dreams for governing a Syrian province. Experts warn that radical militias could massacre Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya residents to rule a unanimously Sunni province once they become in control.
Atrocities in Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya
Since beginning of the siege, the Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya inhabitants have been grappling with harsh hunger. The UN and other international organizations so far turned a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis which is mainly represented by collective starvation in the two towns.
Media reports so far depicted the disastrous conditions in the two towns. Al-Alam news network's reporter earlier this year portrayed the besieged people including the children who suffered from malnutrition, saying that all these crimes are being committed while foreign countries are sponsoring the terrorists who constantly shell the towns with their artillery.
Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen news network also reported from the besieged towns in March, maintaining that last food convoy arrived four months ago. It went on to say that the households seriously suffered from food shortage as militants blocked road access.
Last month, Syrian foreign ministry sent a letter to the UN, condemning the international community’s failure to deliver humanitarian aids to the residents of the besieged cities.
“The catastrophic situation of more than 7,000 Syrian civilians trapped in an area of no more than 10 square kilometers has become a disgrace to humanity and the Western countries that have turned their back on the suffering of those civilians, most of them women and children, who lack the basic livelihood needs, including food and medicine and clean drinking water,” the ministry said.
Reports also suggest that nearly 80 percent of Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya buildings are destroyed by rockets, and civilians are predominantly living in underground shelters for safety. A report released last year noted that since start of the blockade, over 85,000 rockers and artillery shells struck the two towns, killing over 2,000, many of them children and women.
Sit-in continues
As the three-year-old blockade went on, residents staged a sit-in in early July to protest silence of the global community amid critical humanitarian conditions in their towns. They called on the UN to implement the deals stuck to facilitate food and medicine delivery, and in next stages blockade breaking. Last aid convoy was allowed in nearly 5 months ago. The protesters blasted the double standards of the Western leaders' policies.
The Western countries so far only reacted to the Syrian government’s assaults against terrorists' positions. In 2014, the anti-Damascus United Nations Security Council's bloc called on the council members to allow an anti-Syrian resolution to pass. In fact, the reactions of the Western members of the UNSC– mainly US, France, and Britain– to the developments in Syria have so far been pro-terrorist, without showing any commitment to deter the terrorist actions that put the life of the civilians in Al-Fu’ah and Kafriya on the line.
