On October 13, 2018, a child died, and eight other persons were injured, including children and women, in the Sajo camp[1] to the north of the city of Azaz, northern Aleppo province, due to an armed combat between young men from the “Al-Shaitat” and “Al-Assasneh” tribes, according to testimonies obtained by Syrians for Truth and Justice/STJ.
On October 14, 2018, Mohammad al-Naassan, a civilian based in the camp, narrated to STJ the details of the incident:
“On the evening of October 13, 2018, a fight broke out between a young man from the ‘Al-Shaitat’ tribe and another from the ‘al-Assasneh’ tribe. They disputed over the ownership or who is entitled to a tent in the camp. At the start, it was a bare hand fighting, and then knives were used. After this, people from both tribes congregated, and the grappling took a turn to using arms, rifles and machinery guns included. Both sides then began to claim authority over the camp and random shooting started, causing the death of a child and the injury of nine other persons. Panicking, the people left the camp, heading to agricultural lands.”
While the 3-year-old boy Mohammad Mustafa al-Najar died, the injured were rushed to the Blue Crescent Hospital, near the camp.
Reporting on the same incident, Azaz al-Yaoum/Azaz Today posted a video on its Facebook account, showing the injuries which the armed combat between the two tribes resulted in.
In the same respect, Azaz al-Khabar/Azaz the News also posted another video, captioned as the displacement of the camps people due to the confrontations.
For his part, Fadi al-Naser, a member of the area’s police forces, told STJ on October 14, 2018, that the clashes did not cease on the same day, as they continued to the day after though a number of armed opposition groups and heads of the area demanded that they stop. The sides to the confrontations being irresponsive, the Military Police Forces and the Contingency Force, under the 3rd Legion, interfered and surrounded the camp, after which the fighting persons gave in and surrendered their weapons.
According to several local sources, based in the Sajo camp, arms are extensively present inside the camp, incubating about 10,000 IDPs. They added that a massive number of the tribes’ members are affiliated to armed opposition groups; a few of the Al-Shaitat tribe’s men belong to the Ahrar al-Sharqiya/Liberals of the Eastern Area group, while those of al-Assasneh are under the Al-Jabha al-Shamia/Levantine Front.
[1] The Sajo camp is located near the Syrian-Turkish borders at a 3km distance from the Turkish province of Kilis. It is supervised by the Turkish “IHH” organization, while housing 10 thousand IDPs, the majority of whom are displaced from the two provinces of Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor.