Qal’aat al-Madiq town, a crossing path of the displaced, the headquarters of tragedy of many of them, lives deteriorating situation that cannot be helped by the attempts of its people’s as the adequate support is absent

Qal’aat al-Madiq town, one of the towns of the western countryside of Hama Province, the current population is nearly 27 thousand inhabitants, and was one of the most important towns of this country, given the importance it had for the Syrian revolution years especially in the last two years, when it switched to an important crossing and connecting point  between regime forces’-controlled areas and factions’ controlled areas.
Qal’aat al-Madiq is located in the southern part of Sahl al-Ghab, bordered by the factions-controlled Shashabo Mountain and the regime-controlled town of al-Suqaylabiyah. The town participated in protests and demonstrations demanding the freedom and the fall of the regime, and it was considered as a center for thousands of demonstrators from neighboring villages and towns, until the military operations were launched and expanded, where the town -as other towns- headed towards armament and battles, and many Military formations were launched from it, including the Islamic movement of Ahrar al-Sham and al-Faruq Brigades, and then, Jaysh al-Nasr, which is now controlling the town almost entirely.

The ancient Castle is located above Qal’aat al-Madiq town, and it is called Afamia Castle, where in this castle the regime forces backed by military vehicles have been positioned since 2012, and during this long period; several attempts by to advance into the town have been made, given its strategic importance for both parties, but the forces that exist in the Castle have not shield or carried out an attempt to control, they just position in the Castle as it overlooks very large parts of the opposition-controlled areas in the north; in addition to regime forces’-controlled areas southward, and it witnesses with the opposition factions in town an undeclared long truce, where there is no military confrontations between them, and due to the calm that hangs over this town a lot of civilians from the neighboring areas came to it, and also there are hundreds of families who were forcibly displaced from their areas in the Eastern Ghouta, Daraa, the northern countryside of Hama, and the southern countryside of Hama. And the town is named the Point Zero.

The town has many shops and active markets, where local sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for human rights that the normal situations prevail its streets in general, and the security in town is controlled by a separate security office that follows up the complaints of the locals, and prosecutes the people accused of specific issues and brings back the rights of civilians.
Regarding the health and medical situation in the town, many doctors and pharmacists from the town and from other areas, it Also it has a health center that covers emergency cases of disease and injuries for all the neighboring areas, such as Sahl al-Ghab Jabal Shahshabu, as far as the possibilities allows, and the educational process is relatively positive, where the town’s high and middle schools open their doors to teaching students from several neighboring towns and villages, which are the small villages where there are no schools to follow the stages of higher education, while local sources from the town confirmed to the Syrian Observatory about the working conditions of the displaced people, and the economic aspects of the living in the town, saying that the although town suffered from the intense air and ground shelling earlier by the regime forces and the Russian Forces, the town recently witnessed significant calm. It should be noted that hundreds of families have settled in the town coming from Rif Dimashq, Homs, and Hama, after being displaced through agreements between the factions of the area and the regime forces, where they preferred to stay in the town due to the inability to adapt in the camps near the Syrian border with Turkey, and which pushed them -according to sources- to stay was the geographical location of the town, which make it a safe town, and also due to the nature of the town’s population.

Also the Syrian Observatory monitored from the townspeople that with the arrival of winter, new features to suffering began to be drawn on the face of the population and displaced people in Qal’aat al-Madiq town, similar to the situation of the displaced people in other areas, where most of the displaced people are living in an unfinished building or small houses in great numbers, and they lack many of life’s essentials, as most of the displaced people have left their belongings and were displaced of their areas, which pushed the displaced people to begin complaining of the poor living conditions in Qal’aat al-Madiq town, due to the high prices of all varieties of vegetables, fruits, bread, fuel, and other necessary materials, also many traders and shopkeepers contributed in providing assistance, after launching the campaign “Be With The Poor” a few days ago, in which volunteer from of the owners and professions have participated, and reduced prices by a percentage reached 40%, but the conditions of the displaced people in this town started getting worse than before, amid an appeal by displaced people and some of the town’s population for the local and international organizations and institutions; to provide the necessary assistance to them, before their bad conditions get more catastrophic, where the population stressed to the Syrian Observatory that despite efforts of the local council in the town and its attempts to secure accommodation and material necessary for them; the town suffers from a large population swelled, also the people demanded the opening of the trade crossings and activate the market, which was affected greatly in Qal’aat al-Madiq town and most of the towns and villages that are under the control of the factions.

Also displaced people in the town of Qal’aat al-Madiq confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that despite the promises of a good life in the Syria north and its camps, a lot of situations were not as described, where the conditions deteriorated greatly in the camps, which pushed some to resort to towns, cities, and villages to search for places that are secure, stable, and lack security chaos, which most the countryside of Idlib Province is suffering from. Some of the displaced people were housed within houses or incomplete storefront, but many others did not find a proper shelter, and forced to live out in the open in exposed places, where many of the houses still lack a lot of needs to make it a suitable house, and with winter conditions began to deteriorate by the day, the prices are high, the people suffer extreme poverty, in addition to the absence of support and assistance provided by the authorities and humanitarian relief parties… the people demanded to improve their situations in Qal’aat al-Madiq town and considering their requirements, and securing fuel for the winter and repairing the houses inhabited by the displaced people, and providing them with mattresses and blankets and securing jobs for the unemployed youth of the displaced people and the residents.

We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and with the arrival of the extremely cold winter and heavy rain, which increases the tragedy of the displaced people, we call on local, regional, and international Humanitarian and relief parties to provide assistance to the people in Qal’aat al-Madiq town and its villages, and most of the camps of refugees and displaced people from various provinces in Idleb, Hama, and the Syrian north, and help in the relative stabilize of the area, which must be carried out by those parties that claim to help the Syrian people, which also must provide the necessary assistance, particularly in the fields of health and education, as well as other living conditions as the other Syrian areas, which their people try to revive again under the international and regional agreements that claim to be seeking stability in Syria.