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Impact of Hostilities Targeting Critical Civilian Infrastructures in Northeast Syria
Escalations of conflict in Northeast Syria (NES) ostensibly concluded Sunday, October 8, with a statement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan outlining the end to the first phase of the Turkish offensive in Syria, It remains unclear if and when there will be subsequent phases; however, impacts to civilians are already lasting and severe. These impacts will continue to be felt until power, water, fuel, and other infrastructure critical to essential services and daily life, are restored.
On October 4, the Government of Türkiye announced infrastructure, superstructure, and energy facilities in Syria and Iraq as targets for Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). Following this, NES experienced a significant increase in aerial strikes from Turkish aircrafts and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), as well as exchanges of frontline shelling and artillery. These resulted in major damage and destruction of infrastructure critical for civilians in cities across NES, including water stations, power stations, farms, and sites in the direct vicinity of civilian villages and camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
As of October 16, there are 18 confirmed civilian casualties, including those from areas facing frontline shelling and artillery fire. Facilities and infrastructure critical for civilians across NES have been directly and indirectly targeted and severely damaged, with 58 verified targeted sites.1 The nature and severity of the damage inflicted on civilian infrastructure critical to essential services in NES cannot be understated. The scale of damage far supersedes the capacity of the humanitarian community to sustain emergency life-saving service provision. There were already significant gaps in water, power, and fuel prior to the early October escalations. Now with major infrastructure offline and a near-complete reliance on provision of emergency stop-gap measures to sustain life and livelihood in northern Hasakah governorate, there are no sustainable options other than support for major rehabilitations. While outside of the scope of humanitarian activities, these works have a critical impact on humanitarian needs and operations.
The NES NGO Forum is working alongside the UN to develop a contingency response plan for continued humanitarian impacts resulting from damages already felt as well as potential scenarios if the conflict escalates further. However, if significant civilian infrastructural damage is not addressed, no further escalation is required for the situation to worsen from dire to catastrophic. Unless power generating capacity is restored, provision of all major services, including water, food, health, and education, will be obstructed at a scale that cannot be met by humanitarian actors. Increased reliance on short-term stop-gap measures, positioned as long-term solutions, risk further damaging infrastructure and undermining restoration of sustainable access to services across all sectors in NES.