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The National
22-02-2025
- Politics
- The National
US aid cuts raise security risk at ISIS holding camps in Syria
The Trump administration's decision to freeze most US foreign aid risks fuelling an ISIS resurgence, according to authorities in north-east Syria where thousands of the extremist group's fighters and families suspected of links to them are being held in camps. The sudden suspension of aid disrupted humanitarian programmes and caused panic among hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries worldwide, including at the Al Hol camp in Syria's Kurdish-led semi-autonomous region. Blumont, a US humanitarian aid group that provides most essential services for the camp's 37,000 residents – mainly women and children, including westerners – had to suddenly stop its assistance. Overnight, food and water distribution, cleaning services and rubbish collection were completely disrupted and the 300 camp employees left out of work. The funding cut lasted only three days before emergency waivers were granted. But it was enough to temporarily plunge the camp into chaos. 'Complete panic swept through the camp when they stopped providing bread. Life was completely paralysed,' said Fahed Mahmoud, 30, a camp resident from Iraq. Some residents have begun stockpiling supplies in case aid is cut again, Mr Mahmoud said, with row after row of white tents stretching out into the desert behind him. 'If aid stops entirely, it will lead to total chaos and protests.' The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the US-backed coalition that governs the north-east, has long seen Al Hol camp, which it manages, as a 'ticking bomb' and a fertile ground for ISIS ideology to be passed on to a new generation. Local authorities and camp officials have warned of the serious security risks posed by the aid cut. 'If aid is fully cut, it will be hard for us to find the resources to keep ISIS prisons secured,' Farhad Shami, the head of the SDF media centre, told The National. Although most funding has resumed, uncertainty over its duration remains a concern. The US has made it clear that the waiver is temporary, telling the UN last week that 'ultimately, the camps cannot remain a direct US financial responsibility'. Despite the waiver, some services have remained shut, including medical aid and child assistance, according to residents and camp management. 'In the paediatric unit, doctors used to allow 30 children to visit a day. Since the US aid cuts, that number has dropped to 15," said Firas Raad, another Iraqi resident of the camp. Mr Mahmoud and Mr Raad denied any ties to ISIS. They say they have been in the camp since 2018 and were displaced by the ISIS war. Al Hol shows signs of desolation and poverty, with children in worn-out clothes wandering among dilapidated tents. Barbed-wire fences and a heavy security presence surround the camp. It was initially intended to host Iraqi and Syrian civilians fleeing the fighting in the war against ISIS, but its population surged after the group was defeated in its last stronghold, the Syrian town of Baghouz, in 2019. Thousands of wives and children of suspected ISIS fighters were then transferred north to Al Hol. Because of suspicions that some may still be affiliated with radical groups, residents are not allowed to leave the camp even if they have not been charged, raising human rights concerns. Among them is Oum Omar, 28, an Iraqi woman from Anbar, covered head-to-toe in niqab, who quickly pulled back a thin black veil over her eyes when approached. 'The situation in the camp is tough. We lack everything,' she said. Oum Omar is the wife of an ISIS fighter who was captured in Baghouz in 2019, who is now detained in an ISIS prison in the region. Like other women interviewed by The National, she refused to comment on ISIS crimes. The sprawling camp, the size of a small city, also has a high-security 'Annex', where thousands of foreign wives and children of ISIS fighters, as well as more radicalised women, are held. Few foreigners – the camp's residents include 40 different nationalities – have been repatriated. Al Hol is part of a network of camps and prisons run by Kurdish-led authorities in north-east Syria and is probably the most affected by the US funding cut. A significant portion of the camp's monthly operational costs – up to $3 million – depends on US support. 'No one informed us about the cuts,' Jihan Hanan, the director of Al Hol camp, told The National. "They should have studied the specific situation of the camp. You can't just cut off water and bread overnight without a contingency plan. 'The risk of protests and attacks on aid centres rises, and it also creates an opportunity for ISIS to exploit the situation and recruit more people.' Ms Hanan said she fears the US move could be seen as abandonment by the international community, possibly boosting the morale of ISIS sleeper cells. She has worked at Al Hol for three years and considers it the most dangerous camp. 'This is not just about military threats – it is about how resilient the ideology is. The children who arrived as toddlers are now old enough to carry weapons," Ms Hanan said. Over the years, the SDF has launched several security operations in the camps and says it arrested dozens of ISIS members and uncovered tunnels and trenches for sleeper cells. Although US funding has resumed, the operations of other aid organisations in Al Hol, including Save the Children and the World Health Organisation, remain closed. 'Two education centres and two clinics have been permanently closed,' Ms Hanan said. With the situation at Al Hol deteriorating, Iraq has begun a programme to repatriate its citizens, which it says will be completed by 2027. The National saw long queues of people waiting to register for a return to Iraq, which is one of the few nations that have started repatriation from the camp. 'We want all foreign nationals to return to their home countries. This is also an international responsibility. We can't just open the door and tell them to leave,' Ms Hanan said.
Arab News
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Aid cuts could destabilize Daesh-linked camps in northeastern Syria: diplomats
DAMASCUS: Moves by the US administration to cut foreign aid funding risk destabilizing two camps in northeastern Syria holding tens of thousands of people accused of affiliation with the Daesh, aid officials, local authorities and diplomats say. The seven sources said Washington's funding freezes and staff changes had already disrupted some aid distribution and services in Al-Hol and Roj, which host people who fled cities where Daesh was making its last stand between 2017-2019. They are 'closed camps,' meaning residents were not detained or charged as Daesh extremists but cannot independently leave the camps because of suspicions that they are affiliated with or support the group. Aid workers and camp officials — led by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led force that helps run a semi-autonomous zone in northeastern Syria — have long called for the repatriation of camp residents, among them thousands of foreigners including Westerners. But the rapid changes to US funding streams have prompted contingency plans for the spread of disease, riots, or Daesh attempts to retrieve residents they see as unlawfully detained, two senior humanitarian sources and a Roj resident said, requesting anonymity. The humanitarian workers were not authorized to speak to the media, and the Roj camp resident had an unauthorized phone used to talk to Reuters. 'If there's no unfreezing then everything except the camp guards stop. We're expecting mass rioting and breakout attempts. Kurdish authorities in the northeast said last month they expected breakout attempts at detention centers holding Daesh fighters and have refused to hand control of them to the new transitional government in Damascus. The anticipated violence adds to the complex security challenges in Syria, where Islamist rebels installed the transitional government after toppling Bashar Assad and are holding talks with authorities in the northeast to bring all security forces under Damascus's control. Sheikhmous Ahmed, head of camps and displaced persons in the autonomous administration of northeast Syria, said US-funded organizations had been crucial in 'covering the existing gaps' in basic service provision in the camps. But if funding halts altogether, Daesh affiliates 'can benefit from these existing gaps and lack of support,' he said. At least one of the organizations operating in the two camps, aid contractor Blumont, has received waivers allowing it to keep operating, said a Blumont official and Al-Hol director Jihan Hanan. The waiver would last the 90 days. The organization has had to shutter other USAID-funded humanitarian and management services at about 100 unofficial 'collective centers' for other displaced people, the Blumont official said.
Reuters
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
US aid cuts risk riots, breakouts at Islamic State-linked camps in Syria
Feb 14 (Reuters) - Moves by President Donald Trump's administration to cut U.S. foreign aid funding risk destabilising two camps in northeastern Syria holding tens of thousands of people accused of affiliation with the Islamic State, aid officials, local authorities and diplomats say. The seven sources told Reuters Washington's funding freezes and staff changes had already disrupted some aid distribution and services in Al-Hol and Roj, which host people who fled cities where IS was making its last stand between 2017-2019. They are "closed camps," meaning residents were not detained or charged as IS fighters but cannot independently leave the camps because of suspicions that they are affiliated with or support the ultra-conservative group. Aid workers and camp officials - led by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led force that helps run a semi-autonomous zone in northeastern Syria - have long called for the repatriation of camp residents, among them thousands of foreigners including Westerners. But the rapid changes to U.S. funding streams have prompted contingency plans for the spread of disease, riots or IS attempts to retrieve residents they see as unlawfully detained, two senior humanitarian sources and a Roj resident said, requesting anonymity. The humanitarian workers were not authorised to speak to media and the Roj camp resident has an unauthorised phone, which was used to speak to Reuters. "If there's no unfreezing then everything except the camp guards stop. We're expecting mass rioting, breakout attempts. IS will come for the people they've wanted to come for," one of the senior humanitarian sources said. Kurdish authorities in the northeast told Reuters last month they expected breakout attempts at detention centres holding IS fighters, and have refused handing control of them to the new Islamist-run transitional government in Damascus. The anticipated violence adds to the complex security challenges in Syria, where Islamist rebels installed the transitional government after toppling Bashar al-Assad and are holding talks with authorities in the northeast to bring all security forces under Damascus's control. ISLAMIC STATE 'CAN BENEFIT' Sheikhmous Ahmed, head of camps and displaced persons in the autonomous administration of northeast Syria, said U.S.-funded organisations had been crucial in "covering the existing gaps" in basic service provision in the camps. But if funding halts altogether, IS affiliates "can benefit from these existing gaps and lack of support," he said. At least one of the organisations operating in the two camps, aid contractor Blumont, has received waivers allowing it to keep operating, said a Blumont official who requested anonymity and al-Hol director Jihan Hanan. The waiver would last throughout the 90 days the Trump administration said it would use to review expenditures by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which distributes billions of dollars of humanitarian aid around the world. The organisation has had to shutter other USAID-funded humanitarian and management services at about 100 unofficial "collective centres" for other displaced people, the Blumont official said. The official said Blumont was trying to keep up daily bread deliveries to 135,000 people in al-Hol, Roj and the other centres but that it was unclear how long they could continue. The Roj resident said camp management had told residents to ration their food "because it will be our last in a while" and that other camp services had started being wound down because of a lack of funding from the U.S. Asked whether that could prompt instability at the camps, the resident said it was likely they would see "more chaos" and frustration from the displaced living there. U.S. TOP FUNDER Other NGOs sought similar waivers but have not heard back from the State Department and are struggling to secure funds from other donor countries, one senior humanitarian official said. "Realistically, no one can afford to do what the U.S. was doing. U.S. funding was 10 times the number two in line," the official said. The U.S. spent $460 million on humanitarian aid in Syria in 2024, according to the U.S. government's foreign assistance dashboard. It did not say how much of it went to the northeast. On Wednesday, acting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Dorothy Shea told the U.N. Security Council that U.S. aid to al-Hol and Roj camps "cannot last forever." She said the U.S. had shouldered too much of the financial burden for too long and urged countries to "repatriate their displaced and detained nationals who remain in the region." Camp authorities began organising large-scale returns from the camps in January because of the change of government in Syria, said Hanan, al-Hol camp manager. More than 2,300 Iraqis have been repatriated from al-Hol this year, she said. The U.S. has about 900 troops deployed in Syria - most of them in the northeast - to help prevent an IS resurgence after conducting airstrikes and deploying U.S. special forces to help the SDF defeat IS. In 2018, during his first presidential term, Trump announced he wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria but the plan was softened within a year. NBC News reported this month that the Pentagon was developing plans for a U.S. troop pull-out from Syria after Trump expressed interest in revisiting the idea. The SDF said it was not aware of such plans. Aid officials said a pull-out would make all their operations unsustainable.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kurdish officials fear Islamic State revival as US aid cuts loom
Kurdish officials have warned of an Islamic State resurgence if US foreign aid cuts take effect on Monday, which would cripple essential services for tens of thousands of people detained in tented camps in north-east Syria, including suspected members of IS and their families. Blumont, a Virginia-based humanitarian aid group responsible for the management of two of Syria's IS detention camps, al-Hol and al-Roj, was given a stop-work order on 24 January by the US state department. The sudden cessation of services prompted panic in the camps after aid workers failed to turn up for work. Three days later, Blumont was given a two-week waiver to the aid cuts, which unless extended, will expire on Monday. 'We have no idea what will happen tomorrow. It seems as if even the provision of bread will be halted,' said Jihan Hanan, the director of al-Hol camp. The camp holds the relatives of suspected IS fighters and is mostly populated by women and children. Rights groups have for years warned that detainees are held arbitrarily without charges in inhumane and substandard living conditions. No charges have been raised against the camp's population. Despite this, they are unable to leave, with the exception of non-Syrian detainees whose countries agree to take them back. Though IS no longer holds any territory after the group's last stand in March 2019, US and Kurdish officials say the group ideology prevails among former members and that camps and detention facilities are a hotbed of extremist ideology. In the section of the camp where foreign women from at least 40 countries are kept, guards say they are in a constant struggle with women who seek to keep IS alive. 'Even if a normal person enters the camp, they eventually will be psychologically affected. The violent behaviour is really high among the kids and women,' Hanan said, describing incidents of violence against al-Hol's staff. Women there have constructed cloth roofs above their tents and walkways to conceal themselves from guards' view. In once incident, a child as young as six years old waited at the edge of the fenced-off annexe, hurling rocks at passing NGO vehicles with a makeshift sling. It is unclear what will happen on Monday when the brief waiver given to Blumont, which provides the bulk of services in al-Hol, expires. Camp officials are hoping for an 11th-hour exemption from Donald Trump's 90-day global aid freeze, but have been given no assurances from the US administration. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, issued a blanket waiver for 'life-saving assistance', for which humanitarian organisations can apply while the administration reviews which US aid projects will continue. The review process has confused US aid officials, diplomats and humanitarian workers worldwide. When aid was briefly cut off from al-Hol in late January, the camp administration was given no notice. Camp officials had to scramble to secure the most basic of services, as contractors such as Blumont, which normally provided bread and water to the camp, had shuttered their offices. US special forces visited the camp, assuring its director they would help safeguard it in case of any unrest or IS attacks. 'We were able to get bread to the camp by the afternoon. It was 5,000 bags of bread for one day, which was 4bn Syrian lira (£35,000) – the Autonomous Administration [the Kurdish authority of north-east Syria] cannot cover this cost,' Hanan said. Humanitarian conditions in al-Hol are already abysmal. On Thursday, residents shopping at the camp's marketplace moved through mud and puddles as cold winter rain flooded the dirt alleyways of the sprawling complex. Young children, many of whom said they could not remember life outside the camp, darted between the shops, their clothing worn and dirty. 'Everything is bad here. We get food aid every two months and we have to sell most of it. Everyone is tired,' said Taysir al-Husseiniya, a 39-year-old Iraqi woman, sitting in a shop whose shelves were sparsely stocked with lightbulbs and other home goods. Al-Husseiniya said that raising her four children, one of whom was injured by an airstrike during the international campaign against IS, 'was extremely difficult' in the camp's conditions. Her husband was imprisoned by Kurdish authorities in 2019 for being a suspected IS fighter, leaving her to raise her children alone. Human Rights Watch warned on Friday that the Trump aid cuts were 'exacerbating life-threatening conditions, risking further destabilisation of a precarious security situation' in the camps. The future of the US military presence in north-east Syria has also been called into question as the Trump administration seeks to shrink the US military footprint abroad. The US maintains military bases across north-east Syria and has trained, equipped and supported Kurdish forces in their fight against IS since the formation of the US-led international coalition to defeat IS was formed in 2014. The director of the Panorama prison in al-Hasakah, north-east Syria, which houses 5,000 suspected IS fighters, said that a US withdrawal would stretch Kurdish authorities and leave prisons vulnerable to jail breaks. 'If US forces pull out, it will be even worse than 2012. IS sleeper cells in the Syrian desert will emerge and could attack the prison,' the prison director said on Saturday, asking not to be named for fears of being targeted by IS. In al-Hol, there fears that a security vacuum, along with the sudden withdrawal of much of the camp's resources, could provide fertile ground for the radical group's recruitment. 'We will descend into chaos. Maybe the lack of supplies will allow IS sleeper cells to take control of the camp. Maybe there will be attacks on the administration. I can't say what will happen,' Hanan said.
The Guardian
09-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Kurdish officials fear Islamic State revival as US aid cuts loom
Kurdish officials have warned of an Islamic State resurgence if US foreign aid cuts take effect on Monday, which would cripple essential services for tens of thousands of people detained in tented camps in north-east Syria, including suspected members of IS and their families. Blumont, a Virginia-based humanitarian aid group responsible for the management of two of Syria's ISdetention camps, al-Hol and al-Roj, was given a stop-work order on 24 January by the US state department. The sudden cessation of services prompted panic in the camps after aid workers failed to turn up for work. Three days later, Blumont was given a two-week waiver to the aid cuts, which unless extended, will expire on Monday. 'We have no idea what will happen tomorrow. It seems as if even the provision of bread will be halted,' Jihan Hanan, the director of al-Hol camp, said. The camp holds the relatives of suspected IS fighters and is mostly populated by women and children. Rights groups have for years warned that detainees are held arbitrarily without charges in inhumane and substandard living conditions. No charges have been raised against the camp's population. Despite this, they are unable to leave, with the exception of non-Syrian detainees whose countries agree to take them back. Though IS no longer holds any territory after the group's last stand in March 2019, US and Kurdish officials say the group ideology prevails among former members and that camps and detention facilities are a hotbed of extremist ideology. In the section of the camp where foreign women from at least 40 countries are kept, guards say they are in a constant struggle with women who seek to keep IS alive . 'Even if a normal person enters the camp, they eventually will be psychologically affected. The violent behaviour is really high among the kids and women,' Hanan said, describing incidents of violence against al-Hol's staff. Women there have constructed cloth roofs above their tents and walkways to conceal themselves from guards' view. In once incident, a child as young as six years old waited at the edge of the fenced-off annex, hurling rocks at passing NGO vehicles with a makeshift sling. It is unclear what will happen on Monday when the brief waiver given to Blumont – which provides the bulk of services in al-Hol, expires. Camp officials are hoping for an 11th-hour exemption from Donald Trump's 90-day global aid freeze, but have been given no assurances from the US administration. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, issued a blanket waiver for 'life-saving assistance', for which humanitarian organisations can apply while the administration reviews which US aid projects will continue. The review process has confused US aid officials, diplomats and humanitarian workers alike worldwide. When aid was briefly cut off from al-Hol in late January, the camp administration was given no notice. Camp officials had to scramble to secure the most basic of services, as contractors such as Blumont, which normally provided bread and water to the camp, had shuttered their offices. US special forces visited the camp, assuring its director they would help safeguard the camp in case of any unrest or IS attacks. 'We were able to get bread to the camp by the afternoon. It was 5,000 bags of bread for one day, which was 4bn Syrian lira (£35,000) – the Autonomous Administration [the Kurdish authority of north-east Syria] cannot cover this cost,' Hanan said. Humanitarian conditions in al-Hol are already abysmal. On Thursday, residents shopping at the camp's marketplace moved through mud and puddles as cold winter rain flooded the dirt alleyways of the sprawling complex. Young children, many of whom said they could not remember life outside of the camp, darted between the shops, their clothing worn and dirty. 'Everything is bad here. We get food aid every two months and we have to sell most of it. Everyone is tired,' said Taysir al-Husseiniya, a 39-year old Iraqi woman, sitting in a shop whose shelves were sparsely stocked with lightbulbs and other home goods. Al-Husseiniya said that raising her four children, one of whom was injured by an airstrike during the international campaign against IS, 'was extremely difficult' in the camp's conditions. Her husband had been imprisoned by Kurdish authorities in 2019 for being a suspected IS fighter, leaving her to raise her children alone. Human Rights Watch warned on Friday that the Trump aid cuts were 'exacerbating life-threatening conditions, risking further destabilisation of a precarious security situation' in the camps. The future of the US military presence in north-east Syria has also been called into question as the Trump administration seeks to shrink the US military footprint abroad. The US maintains military bases across north-east Syria and has trained, equipped and supported Kurdish forces in their fight against IS since the formation of the US-led international coalition to defeat IS was formed in 2014. The director of the Panorama prison in al-Hasakeh, north-east Syria, which houses 5,000 suspected IS fighters, said that a US withdrawal would stretch Kurdish authorities and leave prisons vulnerable to jail breaks. 'If US forces pull out, it will be even worse than 2012. IS sleeper cells in the Syrian desert will emerge and could attack the prison,' the prison director said on Saturday, asking not to be named for fears of being targeted by IS. In al-Hol, there fears that a security vacuum, along with the sudden withdrawal of much of the camp's resources, could provide fertile ground for the radical group's recruitment. 'We will descend into chaos. Maybe the lack of supplies will allow IS sleeper cells to take control of the camp. Maybe there will be attacks on the administration. I can't say what will happen,' Hanan said.
