A massive rainstorm has wreaked havoc on the displaced Syrian community in north-western Idlib province. According to NGO Syria Response Coordinators, the rainfall has damaged 145 camps, in addition to rendering most roads leading to them as inactive due to the extensive damage.
The number of affected camps gradually increased to 145 as a result of 3 days of continuous heavy rain.
The number of completely damaged tents has also surpassed 280 while the number for partially damaged tents sits at 513. Also, the rain caused significant damage to the roads leading up to the camps, with a stretch of 8 kilometers being heavily damaged. This has made it even harder for NGOs such as Syria Response Coordinators to access the camps in order to quantify the damage to the camps.
The Syria Response Coordinators stated that the following camps have been rendered inhabitable as a result of the rainstorm. The following camps were named: Kherbat al-Jawz, Maarat Masrin, Killi, Kafr Yahmoul, Hazano, Harbanush and Zardana as well as some camps along the Turkish border.
Hundreds of civilians were stranded within the camps, hopeless and unable to protect their belongings and tents from being damaged by the rain. Ali Hamada, a civilian who fled regime attacks and settled in Idlib’s Keferarouk Camp, said in a statement to Anadolu Agency, that this is becoming a yearly ordeal as they have suffered the same ordeal every winter for the past nine years.
“We left our house and land behind and rented agricultural land to set up our tent. Nobody supports us,” he lamented.
Stating that they are failing to prevent the rainfalls from ravaging their tents, Hamada said: “It continues to rain, we have no place to go, our tents are under water.”
Another camp resident Nisrin Kaddour, a mother of five, whose husband suffers from diabetes, said that she had to leave the tent with her family because of the rainfalls.
“All our belongings were flooded; we ran out of clothes. We do not have a blanket under which we can warm, my children got sick,” she told Anadolu Agency.
Asserting that they have nowhere to go, Kaddour appealed to non-governmental organizations to provide help to Syrian refugees in the camps.
