The Shahba Canton[3][4][5] (Kurdish: Kantona Şehba, Arabic: مقاطعة الشهباء, Classical Syriac: ܦܠܩܐ ܕܫܗܒܐ, romanized: Pelqo d'Shahba) was a political unit of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, in the Aleppo Governorate.

[6] The canton was established to administer the areas captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant west of the Euphrates, as part of the Afrin Region.

[13][14][15] Fabrice Balanche claims that toponymy and maps published by the French colonial authorities indicate that a significant percentage of inhabitants of Shahba who are officially classified as Arabs have Kurdish origins.

[12] As of March 2016, Society for Threatened Peoples estimated that there were 450 inhabited villages in the Shahba plain to the north and the east of Aleppo around Azaz, Al-Bab, Manbij and As-Safira, claiming 217 of these settlements to be Kurdish.

[13] Likewise, Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies disagreed with the estimates of the Society for Threatened Peoples, claiming that it inflated the local number of Kurds.

[18] Following the Turkish Operation Olive Branch, many Kurds, Arabs, and Yazidis fled to the Shahba Canton, forming five refugee camps near Tell Rifaat.

[14][15] In 2020, the Rojava Information Center claimed that Tell Rifaat housed 200,000 internally displaced persons; a local in Shahba Canton estimated in late 2021 that the number was closer to 100,000.

[15] In the second half of 2012, most of the region was captured from the Syrian government by opposition groups, including the People's Protection Units (YPG) and its ally the Kurdish Front.

[29][30] After Operation Olive Branch in early 2018 resulted in the occupation of nearby Afrin by the Turkish-led Syrian National Army, thousands of Kurds, Arabs, and Yazidis fled to Tel Rifaat and resettled in Shahba Canton.

Though Turkey repeatedly threatened to occupy the area as well, Shahba Canton was maintained through protection by the Russian military and Syrian Army.

"[37] The governing party of Shahba Canton is the Syrian National Democratic Alliance (Arabic: التحالف الوطني الديمقراطي السوري, TWDS).

[41] The prime ministers were elected[32] and the remaining Executive Council appointed as follows: Security in the Shahba Canton is primarily handled by the local Asayish police force.