Displaced families in Syria’s northwestern Idlib are facing another harsh winter in makeshift tents as the international community failed to end the more than decade-long Syrian war.
Having left their homes in the face of Bashar Assad regime attacks, people in Idlib struggle to continue their daily lives since tent camps do not have the necessary infrastructure for the millions of civilians living there.
The fact that the tents are unstable and constantly wet in rainy weather exacerbates the heating problem. Crowded families living in small tents have great difficulty in keeping warm.
Tents destroyed by windy weather sometimes collapse on families due to snowfall.
Another risk is that the effort of lighting fires to keep warm occasionally leads to tents being burned while burnt commodities within tents, including old clothes, nylon and plastic, lead to various respiratory diseases such as asthma and bronchitis.
Families dream of an end to their trauma and returning to their homes, from where they have been away for years.
The Idlib region bordering Türkiye is home to about 3 million people and it is one of the last pockets to oppose Damascus.
For years, the Assad regime has ignored the needs and safety of the Syrian people, only eyeing further territory gains and crushing the opposition. With this aim, the regime has for years bombed civilian infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and residential areas, causing the displacement of almost half of the country's population.
Muhammed Ebu Adnan, living in Ataa camp, east of Idlib, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that people in the camps cannot even find proper materials to burn and stay warm. "Children who burn coal and wood suffer from diseases such as shortness of breath and asthma," he added.
"Civilians suffered from bitter trauma last year. Tents were destroyed. People were devastated. They had to spend their nights at neighbors' tents. Tents and raincoats have not been changed for almost 7 years," Adnan elaborated.
Another resident, Semire Haffevi, underlined that the winter months are cold and that they are trying to get by with debts. "When my husband works, he pays off debts. We are in need of every essential commodity, especially food," she said.
The Idlib de-escalation zone was formed under an agreement between Türkiye and Russia. The area has been the subject of multiple cease-fire agreements, which have been frequently violated by the Assad regime and its allies.
A fragile truce was brokered between Moscow and Ankara in March 2020 in response to months of fighting by the Russia-backed regime. Almost a million people have fled the Assad regime’s offensive, and yet the regime still frequently carries out attacks on civilians, hindering most from returning to their homes and forcing them to stay in makeshift camps.