A French woman who joined the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, detained in a camp of Kurdish forces, is in "
critical condition
", a Kurdish Red Crescent official said Thursday, March 4, specifying that the young woman was suffering colon cancer.
Read also: A French jihadist allegedly arrested in Turkey
The 32-year-old woman requires "
an urgent operation
" but "
she refused to have an operation
" on the spot, said Perwin Ibrahim, an official of the Kurdish Red Crescent in the Roj camp, where the Frenchwoman is in the north. is Syrian.
His mother Pascale Descamps had announced in Lille to have started a hunger strike to obtain his repatriation.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had asked France in January to "
take the necessary measures
" to treat the Frenchwoman, who has four children.
The young woman left her country in 2015 after converting to Islam, with her three children and her jihadist companion, who will be killed.
Her second husband, another IS member, also died.
Referring to this case, Ibrahim confirmed to AFP that "
her condition is critical and that she has colon cancer
".
Explaining why she refused the operation on the spot, the person in charge assured that she was "
afraid of dying during the intervention without having secured (the fate) of her children
".
"
She wants to return to her country and do the operation there
".
The manager mentioned the case of another Frenchwoman, 33 years old and mother of a daughter, who "
suffers from diabetes and lives on insulin
".
"
She performs dialysis twice a week, her medical situation is critical,
" she said.
"
The best is that they both return to their country,
" she added.
About 80 French women and nearly 200 children live in the camps in northeastern Syria, their relatives, supported by NGOs and international bodies calling for their repatriation.
France, like many Western countries, is reluctant.
Paris says it follows a "
case by case
" policy and has repatriated 35 children, orphans or whose mothers have agreed to separate.
After proclaiming the defeat of ISIS in March 2019, the Kurdish forces are detaining thousands of fighters in their prisons, especially foreigners.
There are also foreign families of jihadists, around 12,000 women and children, in camps.