Displaced of Homs, Hama suffer in Raqqa camps

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Ten thousand displaced people mostly from rural Homs and Hama have been living in difficult conditions in the refugee camp of al-Tuwaihina in eastern Raqqa province amid severe shortages of heating, food and health care.

Displaced Saad al-Homsi, 35, said he had been with his family for a month and had settled in a tent inside the camp. He had not received sponges, blankets and winter clothes from the organizations responsible for the camp despite the severity of the cold and rainfall over the past week. 

He pointed out that the camp administration distributed heaters without distributing fuel to start the heaters for the newcomers.

The camp lies in low area on the northern bank of the Euphrates Lake. It is built randomly inside its wet land area, in addition to the severe shortage of services.

As the rains continue, more than 10,000 people, including some 6,000 children and women, are suffering from the rains. The tents are set on a low-lying land, close to the Euphrates Lake. The land turns into mud as soon as it starts raining.

Saad added that the camp officials and organizations distributed a basket of detergents to the families but they did not receive the necessary relief items which are distributed every 20 days with the detergents, according to those who took shelter in the camp before. 

He pointed out to the shortage of bread provided to the residents of the camp, 7 loaves per family per day equivalent to 1 kg, and this is not enough for a large family.

Regarding medical care, Saad said that medical care is limited to a medical car or mobile clinic visit daily to the camp where dozens of people queue up to get treatment or medication for their illnesses.

The 2,000-tent al-Tuwaihina camp- about 1000 tents are made from burlap material- was built randomly near the Euphrates Lake west of Raqqa. It is one of the worst camps for displaced people, if not the worst, in the areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeastern Syria.