Concerns as foreign women flee shelled camp in North East Syria

Save the Children is deeply concerned by troubling reports that hundreds of women and children with links to ISIS have fled the Annexe of Ein Issa camp in terror after shells fell on the camp this morning.

The Annexe was home to 249 women and 700 children linked to ISIS.  The reports suggest it is now completely empty of foreign women, and foreign masked men on motorbikes are circling the camp.

Save the Children warned there was a danger that children of foreign nationals could now be lost in the chaos.

“Once again, we urgently call on foreign governments to repatriate their nationals while they can. The opportunity is quickly slipping away,” Save the Children Syria Response Director Sonia Khush said.

“We heard reports that the authorities on the ground took some of the foreign women to another location, but many have fled and some are unaccounted for,” Khush added. 

The town of Ein Issa, home to approximately 25,000 people, is completely empty as residents flee to safer areas.

Around 210,000 people have been displaced in Syria in the last three days.

Spokespeople are available. To arrange an interview, please contact: media@savethechildren.org.uk / +44 7831 650409 (24 hrs) / +44 (0)20 7012 6841