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On Monday the UN’s World Food programme announced it was suspending aid to 1.7 million Syrian refugees from lack of funds. It needs just over 51 million euros to feed people during December.
The battle for Kobani, the town in northern Syria on the Turkish border that has become the emblem of resistance to the ISIL fanatics, has reduced this town to ruins.
Once home to 50,000 people, most of whom have fled, there is little left for people to return to, and for those few who have stayed…
“A mortar fell and hit us as I carried two of my daughters; they were injured in my arms. One was seven. She was sent to Turkey and she died there. We brought her body back and buried her here in Kobani,” said one woman.
Many ordinary people complain the Turkish army, camped in strength within sight of the fighting, is doing nothing, and even providing little support for refugees. Airstrikes continue to keep ISIL at bay, while the armed Syrian Kurdish YPG has revived a long-defunct bakery in the town. It is producing two tonnes of bread a day for fighters and some of the 2000 brave residents who’ve stayed behind.
“The Turks treat us badly. They don’t allow us in or out. They don’t allow us to be fed. Nothing, nothing. The YPG sends us food and bread from inside the city,” said one refugee from the nearby village of Girdi.