Residents of Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhoods in Aleppo, northern Syria, have been suffering from a power outage for the ninth day in a row due to a siege imposed by Syrian government forces, as the latter prevents entry of diesel to the area.
Electricity generators have stopped working due to a lack of diesel, saving the remaining quantities to operate hospitals and bakeries.
Local sources from the neighbourhoods told North Press that “due to the siege, work in factories has been suspended.”
“Feeding hours of the subsidized power do not exceed one hour per day, which does not meet the needs of factories and industrial workshops, and it does not even light up houses at night,” according to the sources.
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Residents of Sheikh Maqsoud fear the siege will cause hospitals and bakeries to stop and some kinds of medicine to be unavailable.
Since 2013, the Syrian government forces have besieged the aforementioned neighborhoods intermittently.
In March, the Fourth Armored Division of the government forces denied the entry of foodstuff to the neighborhoods for 46 days, causing a great foodstuff crisis.
Both Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighbourhoods are semi-autonomous and run by a civil administration.
The two neighbourhoods, in addition to the IDPs camps and villages in the northern countryside of Aleppo, are housing the IDPs of Afrin who fled the violations and the invasion of the Turkish army and the Turkish-backed armed opposition factions since their control of Afrin in 2018.
The Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh have become a safe haven for many people from both inside and outside the city of Aleppo. This has led to the activation of trade and industrial movement, but the Syrian government besieges them frequently.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
