Heavy rain damages more than 140 IDP tents in northern Syria

The Syrian Civil Defense Rescue Agency confirmed that the suffering of the displaced is renewed with every rainfall, and the gap in endless humanitarian needs increases in light of the catastrophic reality they have been living in for more than 12 years, exacerbated by the devastating Feb.6 earthquake in northwestern Syria.

The White Helmets stated that heavy rains fell accompanied by strong winds that began after midnight on Saturday and extended until Sunday, causing damage to displacement camps and temporary shelter centers for earthquake survivors, and obstructing traffic due to the formation of water oases and layers of mud on the roads.

The number of camps to which Syrian Civil Defense teams responded on Sunday, November 19, in the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo, reached 22 camps in 10 villages and towns, which were damaged by torrents, rain, and strong winds. The number of tents that sustained partial and total damage reached 140 tents and temporary homes inhabited by more than 200 family.

The agency added that all camps in northern Syria were damaged to varying degrees by this storm, as fabric tents cannot resist strong winds and heavy rains, and most of their roads are not equipped and have weak infrastructure.

During their response to the camps, the Syrian Civil Defense teams opened water drainage channels, in addition to cleaning the sewers of the existing channels, withdrawing water from some gatherings and draining it away from the tents, and raising barriers around the Al-Sikka camps in Harbanoush, the Malaab camp in Azmarin, and the Al-Farouq camp in the village of Qah, north of Idlib.

Syrians have been living in difficult humanitarian conditions in a fragile structure of camps that embraced the childhood of thousands of their children, due to the international community’s neglect of the radical solution to their tragedy, which is their right to the safe return of their cities and towns from which the Assad regime and Russia abandoned them.

As the conflict, now in its 13th year, reached a stalemate, the Syrian regime reclaimed large swathes of lost territory with the help of its key allies in Russia and Iran in recent years.

The U.N. estimates that some 300,000 civilians died during the first decade of the uprising, while half of the pre-war population of 23 million were displaced.