Baladi - Agencies
The PYD's military wing YPG militant group carried out wide detention campaigns against dozens of people from Afrin city in the temporary sheltering camps in northern Aleppo's countryside, after being asked to return to their homes, Qasioun agency reported.
Azad Othman, a member of Afrin local council saidd: "50,000 civilians are stuffed in 4 camps in Aleppo countryside and PYD prevents them from returning to Afrin and taking them as hostages or human shields in these camps, as they aim to use them later to negotiate with Turkey in the future," according to Bas News.
"The detention of 50,000 civilians in these four camps is a crime, because they are living in crucial circumstances on some food supplies," Othman added.
Othman said that signs of torture were seen on the body of man who tried to convince the people of Afrin to return to their homes.
"There are unconfirmed reports that PYD planting land mines around one of the camps' fences to prevent people from returning of Afrin" he added.
Human Rights Watch said on Friday that People’s Protection Units YPG militant group has been recruiting children, including girls, and using some in hostilities despite pledges to stop the practice.
Recent data from the United Nations showed a disturbingly high increase in child recruitment by the YPG last year. The armed group should immediately demobilize children in its ranks and stop recruiting children, including from families in displacement camps under their control. International law prohibits non-state armed groups from recruiting anyone under 18, and enlisting children under 15 is a war crime.
The annual UN report on children in armed conflict found 224 cases of child recruitment by the YPG and its women’s unit in 2017, an almost fivefold increase from the previous year. Seventy-two of the children, nearly one-third, were girls. In at least three cases, the group abducted children to enlist them.
Source: Qasioun Agency