The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

“Al-Ahd” camp north of Idlib, an example of the human suffering of displaced Syrians due to the military operations of the regime forces and the Russian “guarantor”

Since the beginning of the Syrian events, “Kafr Nabudah” town in the northern countryside of Hama has been strongly involved, through protests and great demonstrations in the town, which made it -like others- subject to intensive air and ground bombardments, causing the destruction of more than 70% of its residential neighborhoods, and besides the bombing; tens of its people were killed and injured, and many families displaced towards the north of Syria, until the beginning of the recent escalation which was started by the regime and its Russian ally, on villages and towns of the southern countryside of Idlib and the northwestern countryside of Hama, where they carried out hundreds of airstrikes and intensive ground shelling and displaced all inhabitants of “Kafr Nabudah” town towards the Syrian north, especially after the regime took control of it during the last military operation, where families dispersed in several areas of the displacement camps and several border villages and towns, and of these camps there is al-Ahd camp within “Qah” camp gathering in the northern countryside of Idlib, which has 500 families from Kafr Nabudah town, and some of the families have been displaced for four years, and the number of displaced people in the camp is increasing after the recent displacement, and the suffering of its inhabitants is increasing and the situation in the camp is worsening, as for the service and health aspects in the camp, and the families are suffering harsh conditions at the moment, especially as the winter approaches this year.

In his testimony to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a resident of “al-Ahd” camp talked about the camp’s conditions and the conditions of its residents and their suffering as winter comes, where he said: “al-Had camp is located in a mountainous area in Qah town on the eastern side, the camp was established in 2015 after the displacement of tens of families from Kafr Nabudah town in the northern countryside of hama, and the camp was built and constructed in a primitive way and with modest means by the residents and at their own expense; in this mountainous area which is more than 3 km away of the town, and 4 years after the camp was established it became in a bad living and service situation, and in the recent operation which was launched by the regime forces on villages and towns of the northern and western countryside of Hama and the southern countryside of Idlib, and after the regime forces controlled several villages and towns including Kafr Nabudah town; all residents of the town fled to the north of Syria under heavy shelling, and the number of displaced people in al-Had camp has increased to more than 500 families, all of whom are living in a very difficult humanitarian conditions.”

The source added in his testimony to the Syrian Observatory: “The camp suffers from the lack of enough tents for all families, where some families hosted other families of their relatives, and there are between 6 and 10 people in each tent, while some families built tents in primitive ways using blankets and thick covers, some of them used cars to live in, and a small percentage bought tents and the price of the tent is more than $100 USD, and the camp suffers from a bad service situation, where the road leading to it is rugged and its sewer system is in a very bad sanitation, the camp also lacks a health center to receive medical conditions which increased as winter approached, and it doesn’t have a school for children as well, where the displaced people are forced to transport the patients to Qah town and send their children to school in the town, in turn in not receiving most of the displaced people’s children arguing that the schools become  full with children.

There are no organizations here and these families receive little food aid and drinking water, where the displaced people are forced to buy all their supplies in light of the high prices of goods and drinking water, and from here, we call on humanitarian organizations operating in Syrian north to go to the camp and provide assistance and aid to the displaced people quickly before the winter enters, which brings with it more suffering.”

One of the staff in charge of the camp said in his testimony to the Syrian Observatory: “since the camp was built until now, we have been appealing to humanitarian organizations to support it in order to help its displaced people, help them in surviving so that they do not become homeless, but so far we have not received enough response until now, and the camp needs a lot of maintenance and services such as replacing tents and providing a number of new tents for the newly displaced families, in addition to paving the mountainous road of the camp, where it is very difficult to crossed because of its ruggedness and rocky nature, also the camp’s residents currently need heating, rain insulators, and winter clothing, as well as food and drinking water, and establishing a school and a health center in the camp, to serve more than 500 families, i.e. nearly 3000 people.”