Thousands Left Homeless by Storms, Floods in Syria’s Idlib
By Staff, Agencies
For those who have fled war to shelter in Syria's last militant-occupied stronghold, suffering knows no end.
A rainstorm lashing the country's northwest these days is spreading more misery, after rain and flooding less than two weeks ago killed one child and destroyed hundreds of tents, leaving tens of thousands of internally displaced Syrians homeless once again.
The harsh weather conditions add to an already disastrous humanitarian situation with the spread of the coronavirus and a worsening economic crisis.
International aid groups have warned that reduced humanitarian access to this part of Syria will impede the response to the effects of the storm in a region already suffering from shortage of humanitarian aid.
"The reality is that people in this area are facing a catastrophic situation," said Mark Cutts, the UN’s deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria. "People in these camps are desperate, and humanitarians are overwhelmed by a crisis that the United Nations warned was coming."
Cutts' statement Thursday said at least 121,000 people in 304 sites in the region were badly affected when torrential rain and strong winds damaged or destroyed at least 21,700 tents. He said one child was killed and three other people were injured.
The militant-occupied Idlib province and western parts of Aleppo last year witnessed a crushing Syrian offensive that displaced hundreds of thousands and damaged dozens of clinics and hospitals. More than 3 million people, many of them already displaced by Syria’s nearly 10-year conflict, live in the region.
The heavy rain led to floods in some of the tent settlements, washing away many of the people’s belongings, including food, at a time when the local currency briefly hit a record low of 3,600 Syrian pounds to the dollar on the black market this week, eradicating much of the citizens’ purchase power.
The region has also registered more than 20,000 cases of coronavirus and 382 deaths amid a severe shortage of medical equipment.
The war on Syria, which began in March 2011, has left half a million people dead and half the country’s prewar population of 23 million displaced, with more than 5 million of them living as refugees outside the country.
Residents and aid groups have complained that the slow arrival of assistance into the almost besieged region is the result of last July’s decision by the UN Security Council to limit for a year humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria’s northwest to just one crossing point from Turkey.
