Winter in Syria’s Idlib deteriorates living conditions in camps

By Ahmet Karaahmet and Mehmet Burak Karacaoglu

IDLIB, Syria (AA) – Freezing winters have deteriorated the living conditions of people living in tents in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province.

The tents become wet and uninhabitable due to heavy downpour.

Syrian civilians displaced by the attacks of the Assad regime are struggling with another winter of rain and harsh cold weather conditions in the 14th year of the civil war.

The displaced people try to keep warm by burning nylon, wheels, clothes, boots, and slippers that they collect during the day, as fuel is scarce.

- 'Women, children spent night in mosque due to downpour'

Muhammed Damis, the manager of the Andalusian Camp in the Zerdene village, told Anadolu that many tents flooded due to heavy rain over the weekend.

Stressing that they had to evacuate the families at night, Damis said: "Women and children spent the night in the mosque due to the downpour. Their belongings were flooded because the tents were old."

He said the tents should be changed immediately, infrastructure should be built to drain the puddles and the ground should be laid with pebbles.

Muhammed Termen, who migrated from the Maarat al-Numan district in 2019, said rain makes their lives even more difficult.

Explaining that they suffered every time there was heavy rain, Termen said: "Puddles formed in the tents. We dug a trench at night with the youth of the camp. Our belongings such as clothes, sponge beds, and blankets were flooded."

Halidiye Ali, another camp resident, said his children got sick from the cold.

White Helmets, a local civil defense group, announced that the tents of 1,118 families in 48 camps were flooded due to the heavy rain in the Atme town in northern Idlib over the weekend.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Hundreds of thousands of people have since been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN figures.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar