(Video and pictures) from camps of the Syrian north, about 100 thousand families suffer from the recent disasters of rainstorms which damaged more than 1400 tents and affected more than 15500 families
The tragedy is escalating each time according to different introductions, while the result remains the same, disasters, tragedies, and pains before the attention of the international community, which continues to be act blind to the magnitude of the tragedy and is doesn’t provide the required assistance, strangling the displaced Syrian people even more, and the latest of these tragedies is what camps of the Syrian north have witnessed of rainstorms, which caused havoc and destruction in tens of camps in the Syrian north, especially those located on the border between Syria and Turkey, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the number of camps damaged by torrential rains and the numbers of affected families, the majority of these camps are located in the northern and northwestern countryside of Idlib province, where the proportions of damage in each camp vars depending on the altitude of the camp, in addition to how much the construction of each camp is strengthened and prepared for these situations, as these camps varies in their date of construction and the quality of tents, as well as the floors over which they have been built.
Thousands of displaced families from various Syrian areas are present in these camps, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the numbers of families living in each of the camps, and they are as follows: Darkush camps 1400 families, Kafrluseen camps with 5200 families, Southern Atma 13000 families, Northern Atma 7635 families, Zouf camps 3500 families, Khirbat al-Joz camps 5000 families, Salqeen camps 2200 families, Marshourin camps 780 families, Harem camps 1500 families, Batinta camps north Ma’arrat Mesrin town 120 families, the mud village north of Ma’arrat Mesrin 180 families, Azmarin camp 150 families, more than 25000 families in al-Hol camp, al-Rokban camp more than 11000 families, al-Shahba camps about 20000 families of Afrin area, and more than 2300 families in camps at the east of Euphrates.
The damage was also monitored by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and the following shows number of damaged tents in each camp:
Northern Atma Camps 75, Southern Atma camps 93, Sarmada camps 45, Deir Hassan camps 24, Kafrluseen camps 62, al-Karama camps 50, al-Rahma camps 15, al-Salam camps 13, Li’Ajlekom camps 23, Khirbet al-Joz camps 40 camps, Darkush camps 20, Ein al-Bayda camp 15, and al-Zof camps about 30.
Also several other camps have been damaged in various areas, such as the southern countryside of Idlib and the western countryside of Aleppo, and more than 200 tents were damaged in the northern countryside of Aleppo which are inhabited by displaced people from Afrin area, and over 500 tents in al-Hol and east of Euphrates, and more than 200 tents in al-Rukban camp.
Reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that most of these camps have been suffering for a long time from a critical humanitarian situation, a significant shortage of foodstuffs, and the lack of assistance, as well as a sewage crisis, severe shortage of fuel materials, not to mention the fact that most of these camps are old their tents have not been replaced for a long time, and most of them -especially in the northern countryside of Idlib such as Atma- are present within farmland, which increased the difficulties which the residents face after the floods, and the difficulty of leaving the camps after they sink in water, also “Doyouf al-Sharqiyyah” camp in the eastern countryside of Aleppo had a large share of these floods, which caused the uprooting of most of its almost 52 tents, in addition to evacuating its residents from it, and “al-Marj” camp west of Ihtmylat town in the northern countryside of Aleppo, the rainstorm hit it and also affected more than 5000 of its displaced people.
Also the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the number of people affected by the floods in camps of the Syrian north, the following shows number of affected families in each camp:
Northern Atma camps 1960, Southern Atma camps 2670, Sarmada camps 866, Deir Hassan camps 355, Kafrluseen camps 250, al-Karama camps 460, al-Rahma Camps 200, al-Salam Camps 240, Li’Ajlekom camps 216, Khirbat al-Joz 182, Darkush camps 123, Ein al-Bayda camps 200, al-Zof camp 70, also more than 300 families have been affected in other scattered camps in the countryside of Idlib province and the southern countryside of Aleppo, in addition to 3000 families in camps of the displaced people of Afrin in the northern countryside of Aleppo, and more than 2200 families in al-Rokban camp, and more than 2450 families were affected in al-Hol camp in the southeastern countryside of al-Hasakah, the reliable sources of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have also confirmed that these families have displaced towards different camps, many of which have moved to other less affected camps, and the rest of the, stayed trying to rebuild their tent, and some were able to get out with their tents, while others stayed out in the open waiting for the concerned humanitarian organizations to provide aid, also some of them are still trapped in these camps and have not been able to get out due to special circumstances, and all these camps and tents need to be rehabilitated and replaced by new habitable ones, and reliable sources confirmed that the camps urgently need to take the water out of them through suction or draining, and creating a sewage water network instead of the one currently present in most of the camps, which suffers from a large rift and cause many troubles for the inhabitants of these camps, and it is worth mentioning that this incident is not the first of its kind, where camps of the Syrian north suffered from a very heavy rainfall, flooding, and floods at the beginning of this winter, which affected tens of camps and displaced hundreds of families.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored several camp officials launching urgent appeals before the beginning of the current winter, in which they called on the humanitarian organizations and concerned parties to move and develop a preventive plan to prevent the occurrence of such incidents, or at least to reduce them through a series of measures, including raising the tents over the ground level with concrete coatings, changing the muddy floors of the camps, replacing the damaged tents with new one and the providing them with raincoats, but these appeals did not receive any actual responses from the many organizations working in the Syrian north, where since their establishment, the residents have been unable to live in them and suffering from living in them, also residents confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that it is no longer possible to be called camps anymore, as they do not contain any kind of normal life, where they have been living in these camps in a very difficult situation, as very little humanitarian assistance arrive except through a few organizations with scarce support at very far intervals, and many residents of these camps are trying to send their family members -even children- through smuggling to Turkey to work, so that they can continue to live in these camps with their family and not endanger their lives, and as winter starts in every year; the same suffering is repeated, from the flood of camps and the displacement of their inhabitants, and the great devastation in these camps, but this year was one of the most difficult years for the inhabitants of the camps, where they were hit by a rainstorm at the beginning of the current winter, also residents of the camps have not seen any change in the tents, they were not even supplied with anything that can help them to stand in the face of a new rain wave, then, the last storm came and hundreds went out towards the border strip and another areas, some of whom went to their relatives in less affected camps, where residents have been waiting for humanitarian organizations and rescue teams to come and help to overcome this humanitarian catastrophe, but the residents have stressed that the response from these organizations was very timid compared to the large numbers of civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, who have gotten out of these camps because of the great damage caused by the floods and rains, and the people appealed to come up with future solutions to prevent such a difficult humanitarian situation from happening later, especially in the absence of radical solutions to the problem of displaced people, and, the continuous daily shelling.
Pictures by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor the catastrophic situations within the camps of Atma near the border with Iskenderun in the shadow of the deteriorating weather conditions and the rains and storms witnessed in the area
https://www.syriahr.com/en/?p=122759
A video by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights show the tragic and catastrophic conditions of residents of the Syrian north camps, because of the rainstorm that hit the area in the recent days, which destroyed hundreds of tents and displaced thousands of people