Rainwater overflows “Sham 2” Camp in Idlib countryside .. and 125 families are living a tragic reality without services amid turning-a blind-eye by the humanitarian organizations

Suffering of the displaced people in camps in several villages and towns in the Syrian North, renewed hours after the fall of heavy rain, today the 5^th of December 2019, and several camps in north Syria drowned, as a result of the heavy rain that started early morning, while the makeshift camps have been largely sustained damage due to the poor services in them.

According what the Syrian Observatory monitored, the camp of “Sham 2” faces a tragic situation and has been largely damaged, where rainwater entered all tents, which forced the camp’s inhabitants to get out and searched -under the rain- for a shelter in the shadow of the lack of potentials.

In his testimony to the Syrian Observatory, one of those in charge of the camp, talked about the camp and its living and services situation: he said “the camp is located at the outskirts of Kafatayn village which is near Kelli town in the northern countryside of Idlib, and it was established on the 7^th of June 2019, with nearly 125 families live in it, the camp has been established with individual efforts by the displaced people, a 8- dunam-piece of land was granted by a donor for 3 years, and with the efforts of the camp’s inhabitants, the basic requirement of tents and a water tank have been bought, also a water closet has been prepared, we unavailingly asked the Department of the Displaced People Affairs, for providing some tents and supplies, so we did with several humanitarian organizations, but no response comes.”

“Since it was established, the camp has been suffering from deteriorated conditions due to the lack of services, where the camp lacks a sanitation and enough toilets, in addition to the damaged road out of the camp, also the camp’s ground is dirt and it has not been prepared or covered with gravel because such things cost much, the displaced people in the camp also suffer from a difficult living situation, in the shadow of complete interruption of support, the extreme poverty and high prices” he added.

The source continued “no organizations noticed the camp’s situation, we appealed to many of them but all turned a blind eye, we feared the camp to be overflowed in winter, and that what really happened, rain started with early hours of the day, Thursday the 5^th of December 2019, it was showery and lasted after 12:00pm, which caused the camp to be completely drowned, water entered almost all the tents and swept them away, furniture in them were also damaged, and the families faces a tragic situation, especially the camp contains a large number of women, children and elderly, we evacuated the tents and re-installed them after the rain stopped, also the only road out of the camp has been cut off, until now, more than 50 families are trying to re-install their tents, these families also lost much of their furniture, we call upon all humanitarian organizations operating in the Syrian North, to send their crews to help those affected in the camp, where it is in urgent need to some basic requirements, including the pavement of the road and cover it with gravel, preparing the camp’s ground and replacing the damaged tents, providing the families in the camp with supplies they need including heating materials, food and medical supplies, in addition to furniture like kitchenware, blankets and clothes.”

For his part, one of the displaced people in “Sham 2” Camp talked about his suffering due to the drowning and damage of his tent and the deteriorating living conditions in the camp in general: he said “I have displaced with my family from Maarrat Hurmah town in the southern countryside of Idlib, in the wake of intensive shelling on the area, escorted by many other families, where we established the camp without help of any organizations, and with very poor potentials, we are extremely poor, and we have not received any aid, we need to provide the camp with many services, we also need heating material and food baskets, as the prices are very high, in addition that the coming out of the camp to get supplies is too difficult, the camp has to be prepared and safety standards have to be secured, so that the camp may not be drowned again.”

Lens of SOHR: 125 families are living tragic situations in “Sham 2” which is located near Kafatayn village north of Idlib