Visit The Syria Report Subscribe to our mailing list
EN ع
  • Twitter
Syria Report
  • All articles
  • News
  • Analysis & Features
  • Reports & Papers
  • Regulations
  • Directory
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
Home1 / HLP2 / News3 / Explained: Who Lives in Kafraya and Al-Fuaa?4
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Explained: Who Lives in Kafraya and Al-Fuaa?

26-10-2021/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

In July 2018, Islamist opposition factions seized control of the two Shia towns of Kafraya and Al-Fuaa in the north of Idlib after evacuating the remaining residents according to the “Four Towns Agreement.” Since then, there have been disputes and clashes between the controlling armed factions and displaced Sunni civilians, who have recently arrived in the towns, over who has the right to live in the homes left behind by displaced Shia civilians. The towns were divided into districts, which were allocated to each armed faction present.

The Four Towns Agreement was settled between representatives from Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) and Ahrar Al-Sham, on one side, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, on the other, through Qatari mediation in Doha in April 2017. The agreement stipulated that residents of the Rural Damascus towns of Madaya and Zabadani, who had refused to reconcile with the regime, evacuate to northern Syria in exchange for the evacuation of residents from Kafraya and Al-Fuaa. All four towns had been under siege by various armed forces at the time. The agreement saw different stages and successive setbacks, as well as the addition of new areas and stipulations, before it was finally implemented in July 2018.

HTS controls more than half of the houses in Kafraya, while the other half is split between the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) and Ansar Al-Tawhid. These homes are mostly inhabited by the families of armed faction members, and housing priority was granted to married members. HTS, Jaish Al-Ahrar, Failaq Al-Sham, Ahrar Al-Sham, and the Gathering of the Sons of Damascus share control of the neighboring Al-Fuaa. Each of these groups controls an entire section of the town, including the houses and shops.

Meanwhile, displaced civilians with no ties to the armed factions also live in these two towns and comprise more than half of the current population. Most of these people are displaced civilians from the towns of Madaya and Zabadani, as well as other parts of West Ghouta outside Damascus, and are in urgent need of housing. Often, they do not pay rent for their housing in Kafraya and Al-Fuaa.

In some cases, civilians displaced from other parts of Syria ended up renting homes in the districts of Kafaya and Al-Fuaa controlled by the armed factions. However, the housing needs of fighters have led to disputes with these displaced residents. Last September, TIP demanded that someone who had been displaced to Kafraya be evicted. All of TIP’s fighters are Uighur Muslims, an ethnic minority group in China. Most of the fighters moved to Syria with their families in waves beginning in 2012. They are concentrated in the western countryside of the Idlib Governorate and the northern part of the Lattakia Governorate.

The person whom TIP wanted to evict was among the 15 families displaced to Kafraya from the town of Al-Latamna in the Hama Governorate. The dispute escalated when the tenant refused to leave his rented home, prompting HTS’ security forces, which are in charge of resolving such disputes, to intervene. They ruled in favor of TIP and forced all residents displaced from Al-Latamna to leave their rented homes in Kafraya, citing previous eviction warnings.

This dispute came after forces affiliated with Ahrar Al-Sham evicted a widow from the home she was inhabiting in Al-Fuaa in May 2020. The group then fired bullets into the air to disperse civilians who gathered to protest the eviction.

Post Views: 16
Tags: english
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail
https://hlp.syria-report.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Logo-300x81.png 0 0 Rand Shamaa https://hlp.syria-report.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Logo-300x81.png Rand Shamaa2021-10-26 14:50:462021-10-26 14:50:49Explained: Who Lives in Kafraya and Al-Fuaa?

Read also

  • What Women’s Housing Rights Violations Do Large Family Homes Conceal?
  • Aleppo City Council Harms Shop Owners in Souk Qastal for Qaterji Company’s Benefit
  • SSG Modifies Building Code in Idlib, Raising Permit Fees
  • Damascus Governorate Announces Auction for Al-Tadhamon and Qaboun Debris
HelpAbout usContact usAdvertise with The Syria ReportTerms & conditions
Copyright © 2022 The Syria Report – all rights reserved. Your use of this website is subject to our legal terms & conditions
اللاذقية: العودة إلى الغنيمية.. والسمعة لوادي... مفتاح: من يسكن كفريا والفوعة؟
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Ok

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.