The YPG subsequently announced its intention to start a guerrilla war in Afrin,[11] leading to the SDF insurgency in Northern Aleppo.

The region has seen human rights abuses, including kidnappings ethnic cleansing, torture, forced evictions and killings since the start of Turkish occupation in Afrin.

[22] According to a June 2016 estimate from the International Middle East Peace Research Center, about 316,000 displaced Syrians of Kurdish, Yazidi, Arab and Turkmen ethnicity lived in Afrin Canton at the time.

[23] After the Turkish-led forces had captured Afrin in early 2018, they began to implement a resettlement policy by moving their mostly Arab fighters[24] and refugees from southern Syria[25] into the empty homes that belonged to displaced locals.

[24][25] Refugees from Eastern Ghouta, Damascus, told Patrick Cockburn of The Independent that they were part of "an organised demographic change" which was said to replace the Arab population of Afrin with an Kurdish majority.

[24] A diverse agricultural industry is at the heart of the Afrin District's economy,[27] traditionally olives in particular, and more recently there has been a focus on increasing wheat production.