RUDAW: Free Burma Rangers Call on NGOs to Return to Northeast Syria

1 March 2020

Erbil, Kurdistan

From the article:

Rudaw’s Yasmine Mosimann sat down at our studios on Thursday with David, Karen, and Peter, who have just returned from Syria, to hear about what they observed during their month-long humanitarian tour.

“We are a very small NGO. But we try to be the eyes and the mouth for bigger groups, to say this is what’s happening, these are the needs. So we went this time to give food, [blanket, and shelter] to some of the 200,000 people that are displaced. Some are in camps, some are living out in abandoned schools, in the fields with almost nothing,” said David of the situation for IDPs in Rojava.

The humanitarian called for NGOs to return to the region, saying that the area is “relatively safe” despite the ongoing conflict and presence of the Islamic State (ISIS).

“The main obstacle is will…if we really care about people we have to put people first, not safety first,”  he added.

Read the full article and watch Dave and Karen’s interview here.