ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) announced on Sunday that it handed over a Brazilian woman and a child - identified as family of Islamic State (ISIS) members - to a diplomatic delegation from Brazil’s embassy in Damascus.
In a statement, the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) said that a Brazilian delegation headed by Brasilia’s Charge d’Affaires Joao Zanini met with Fanar al-Kait, co-chair of DAANES’s foreign relations department, and Lana Hussein, representative of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), among others.
Of note, the YPJ is a core component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which serves as the de facto military force in Rojava.
During the meeting, “a woman and a child from the families of ISIS were handed over to the Federative Republic of Brazil under an official document signed between both sides, within the framework of humanitarian cooperation,” the statement said.
The Brazilian delegation reportedly expressed “deep gratitude for the coordination and support provided” by the DAANES and the SDF. Charge d’Affaires Zanini was cited as saying, “We appreciate the care that ensured the safety and health of our citizens until their return."
The US-backed SDF played a critical role in the territorial defeat of ISIS in Syria in 2019.
The Kurdish-led forces are also responsible for securing the Roj and al-Hol camps in Rojava’s Hasaka province. The two notorious camps house tens of thousands of individuals with suspected links to ISIS.
Although the meeting took place last week, it was only made public on Sunday. During the discussions, the two sides addressed the broader situation in Syria, including the talks between the Kurdish-led administration and Damascus, the mid-September parliamentary elections and the security and humanitarian conditions in the region.
DAANES reiterated that the solution to the crises in Syria lies in “a comprehensive political process that guarantees the participation of all components and the implementation of the March 10 agreement.”
The agreement - signed by SDF chief Mazloum Abdi and Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa - outlines the integration of “all civil and military institutions” in Rojava under the administration of the Syrian state and establishes a “ceasefire across all Syrian territory.”
However, talks about the implementation of the agreement have stalled in recent weeks as the two sides remain at odds over the interpretation of the term integration. While the SDF seeks to join the Syrian forces as a unified bloc, Damascus prefers to individually absorb and assimilate Kurdish fighters into the Syrian army.
DAANES also reiterated its rejection of the upcoming legislative elections and “of any elections imposed with a unilateral mentality and without genuine representation.” It further urged “the international community and the United Nations not to recognize such elections.”
Syria’s state electoral agency on Tuesday released the seat distribution for the mid-September People's Assembly elections. Notably, voting in Rojava’s Hasaka and Raqqa provinces were postponed due to what the Higher Committee for the People’s Elections described as a “lack of a secure and stable environment.”
The DAANES then disputed this reasoning, insisting that “the areas of North and East Syria are the most secure” in the country. It further slammed the electoral process as “exclusionary and undemocratic,” adding that it "does not reflect the will of the Syrian people,” but is rather “a continuation of the policy of marginalization and exclusion.”
Brazilian authorities had announced the arrival of Karina Ayalin Raiol Barbosa and her 7-year-old son in Brazil last Wednesday. Barbosa had spent about 9 years in areas controlled by ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
The pair were transferred from Rojava to Damascus, then to Doha, Qatar, and finally to Sao Paulo where she was reportedly interrogated upon arrival.
This marks the second repatriation operation facilitated by the DAANES and the SDF in recent weeks.
In mid-August, the United States announced that it assisted Tanzania in returning one woman and three children from the Roj camp only weeks before, also expressing gratitude to the Kurdish-led forces in the repatriation.
