Syrian Christians Offer Humanitarian Aid to Fleeing Yazidis

Spend Three Days Collecting Food, Medicine and Clothing

Damascus, September 04, 2014 (Zenit.org) Staff Reporter

Christian residents of a Syrian city close to the border of northern Iraq have spent the past three days offering humanitarian aid to Yazidis fleeing jihadists in the region.

The Christians, in the city of Qamishli, mounted a popular campaign to collect food, medicine and clothing to help Yazidi people who had found refuge in Syrian territory, close to a refugee camp in Newroz.

Syrian sources told Fides new agency that committees, comprising members of local militants of the Assyrian Democratic Party and others, put up a tent in the central area of Qamishli which for three days served as a point of collection of prime necessities. Most of the Yazidis had fled from the northern Iraqi mountainous region of Sinjar where they had been seeking safety from Islamist militants.

A group of young volunteers who took the supplies to the refugee camp offered to work with other similar humanitarian initiatives to help refugees. These included a vaccination campaign and the institution of a team of psychological support for women and children.

According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, by the end of August 8,000 people – mainly belonging to the Yazida religion – had taken refuge in the camp at Newroz, some 60 kilometres from the border with Iraq, and about 3,000 others settled in Yazidi villages around the cities of Amuda and Derbassia.