Children of Washokani Camp suffer under displacement, July's heat

At the peak of July’s searing heat, ANHA agency's correspondent visited Washokani Camp, west of Hasaka city in the Jazira Canton. The camp shelters displaced people from Serê Kaniyê, which was occupied by Turkey and its mercenaries in 2019, forcing its residents to flee.

The families in this camp endure dire, indescribable humanitarian conditions. The sun’s heat nears boiling point, and the air feels suffocating between the worn-out tents, which barely offer any protection from the daytime heat. These tents repel neither sun nor danger, becoming instead fabric prisons that trap suffering.

In the camp’s narrow alleys, children wandered slowly, drenched in sweat, carrying jerrycans of water on their small shoulders; an exhausting quest for survival. Despite their young age, their frail bodies didn’t stop them from bearing these burdens, as they know each sip of water could save them from the deadly heat ravaging their bodies.

ANHA correspondent, who witnessed the tragedy firsthand, said: “Long queues of women and children formed in front of water tanks, waiting under the blazing sun for their turn to fill their containers. I saw a woman pouring water on her little daughter’s head in a desperate attempt to ease the deadly summer heat. She was trying to create a moment of coolness in a hell that tears at the flesh. That single scene summed up the suffering of mothers in the camp.”

In another corner, the correspondent's attention was drawn to a father holding his infant daughter, barely two years old, placing her under a water tap in hopes of cooling her down. He said in a low voice, refusing to be filmed: “The summer heat shows no mercy, not even to children. There’s no solution except to wet her body.”

His words captured the depth of pain these families endure, in the absence of any cooling equipment or real shelter to protect them from this daily heat.

In yet another scene, three children ran between the tents, carrying small water jugs. They filled them hastily, then splashed the water over their tired bodies. Their laughter gradually faded under the weight of their harsh reality, yet remained a spark of childhood amid the darkness of suffering.

Inside the tents, the situation was even worse. The heat was stifling, oxygen nearly absent, turning the dilapidated shelters into suffocating chambers unfit for life, where both young and old struggle to breathe.

Concluding his visit, ANHA correspondent stated that these scenes are not exceptions, but daily realities since the displacement of Serê Kaniyê’s residents in 2019. Children have lost their dreams of a dignified life, while families cling to the hope of a safe return to their occupied city and an end to the suffering that has become woven into the fabric of their everyday lives.

It’s worth noting that Washokani Camp, located west of Hasaka, was established by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria in October 2019, following Turkey’s assault on Serê Kaniyê. The camp currently houses around 2,400 families, totaling approximately 17,000 individuals.

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ANHA