Hundreds of thousands of people had to flee Northern Syria due to the attacks of Turkey and its militias. They now have to survive under difficult living conditions in Raqqa, Tabqa and Kobanê as well as in other north-eastern Syrian cities.

Jihadists murdered her two sons and looted her house

Edule Ime is one of them. Two of her sons were killed before her eyes by the militias of the "Syrian National Army" (SNA) under the control of Turkey. She had to flee with her old husband and her little grandchildren and now tries to survive in Raqqa. Ime tells: "When the gangs came, we had to flee. They had already killed two of my sons before my eyes before. Now me and my man are left alone with these toddlers. When I recently went back to see how things were there, I saw that they had plundered everything in our house. They told me that my son should come to them. They already killed two of them before. Now I have only one son left and I should give him, too, to them? Out of fear I had said okay and went out. I never went there again. Now we live here in a house which we do not know who it belongs to. It has neither windows nor doors."

After the invasion, they plundered everything

Esma Mihemed tells: "They have taken everything from us. We were fine. We had everything. We lived together as Arabs and Kurds without any difference. Erdoğan and his gangs spoiled everything. We now live here with three families. My husband is sick, but the neighbours are helping us."

No different than ISIS

Another displaced civilian from Girê Spî reports about the time before their flight: "They came into the houses especially in the evening and stole everything. They took the cars away from the front door. You can't even visit your neighbours. As soon as you're outside, they steal everything from you. The women can't go outside for fear. They all have long beards and dress like ISIS. They scream the jihadist Takbir. They are no different than ISIS. They have emirs like the ISIS. We had Kurdish neighbours whose homes were plundered. When we said that they hadn't done anything and asked why they were being robbed, they took us away and tortured us. We eventually fled to Raqqa. We want to return to our old life. We used to be very well."