Syria’s displaced and most vulnerable hit by heavy snowfall

Spell of bad weather has affected more than 2,000 people in north-west Syria

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  An aerial view of the snow-covered Al Zaytoun camp near the city of Azaz in the northern countryside of Aleppo, where about 600 tents are set up. All photos: Moawia Atrash / The National

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  A child plays with a snowman at Al Zaytoun camp north of Aleppo.

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  A tent in Al Zaytoun camp in northern Syria that was destroyed after large amounts of snow fell on it.

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  A child stands next to his brother at the entrance to their tent as they look at the snow in the camp.

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  Khadija Suleiman, 50, displaced from the southern countryside of Aleppo, has 7 children. She said that before they were displaced, they did not feel winter because they had warm houses and money. But now that they live in tents, their financial situation is difficult and they are afraid of what is to come during the winter.

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  A displaced Syrian child walks near his tent and eats the snow that fell on the camp.

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  A child and her sister try to cover their tent, which was destroyed by a snowstorm in northern Syria.

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  A child makes snowballs and throws them inside the camp.

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  Bader Shehadeh, 50, displaced from rural Idlib, has 6 children. He said he has been displaced for 8 years and his family had been moving from one place to another before settling in the camp, where they suffer from the bitter cold. Before the war, he loved when it snowed, but now it is very difficult to deal with.

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  An elderly displaced Syrian woman removes snow in front of her tent.

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  A displaced child carrying a piece of snow walks next to his sister through the camp in northern Syria.

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  Aerial view of tents covered with snow in Al Zaytoun camp in the northern countryside of Aleppo.

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  A Syrian woman scrapes snow from her destroyed tent after a snowstorm.

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  Faisal, 13, scrapes snow off his tent. He says he loves snow and playing in it with his friends, but the winter has become a tragedy for his family as their tent was destroyed in the storm. In his home village, he used to have fun when it snowed, but now he is sad.

One child died and his mother was placed in intensive care after their tent collapsed under heavy snowfall that has affected thousands of displaced people in Syria's northern Aleppo province.

At least two other children from a camp in Afrin, in the Aleppo countryside, were admitted to hospital with low body temperatures, according to the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).

The snowstorm hit Aleppo, which is controlled by Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces, on Tuesday evening and continued through Wednesday night.

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  A child peers out of a tent at Salat Zagrous Camp for internally displaced Syrians in Afrin, Aleppo Governorate. A strong snowstorm and torrential rain hit several camps of internally displaced people in north-western Syria on Wednesday, causing roadblocks, destroying hundreds of tents and forcing dozens of families to abandon the area. All photos: EPA

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  Internally displaced Syrians walk in the snow at the camp

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  Snow is brushed off the roof of a tent

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  Mark Cutts, the UN deputy regional humanitarian co-ordinator for Syria, called for urgent help for internally displaced persons in the north of the country

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  A man staying at the camp removes snow from the top of a makeshift shelter

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  Mr Cutts said many tents in Afrin and Azaz had been buried by snow

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  A bulldozer clears a road in Salat Zagrous. Access to the camp was cut off by the bad weather, the UN co-ordinator said

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  An internally displaced child explores the snowy landscape

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  Internally displaced Syrians stand in the snow

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  A woman removes snow from her tent

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  Children collect dry branches to burn and warm themselves with

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  The snowfall covered a large area

A video posted on Twitter by Ocha's deputy regional humanitarian co-ordinator for Syria, Mark Cutts, showed tents sagging under a heavy blanket of snow at a camp in Afrin.

“Heavy snowfall across northern Syria has blocked roads, damaged tents and made life even more difficult for displaced people in camps,” he wrote.

“The most pressing needs are reopening of the roads for uninterrupted access to the sites, moving the affected persons to safe places, securing means for heating, replacing destroyed tents, providing ready-to-eat meals and winter clothes for children and families,” the UN said in a status report on Wednesday.

The snow is expected to continue and the urgent aid response will have to continue into coming weeks, the UN said.

“One major concern is the potential floods in sites when the snow melts,” it said.

Ocha said 362 tents had been damaged across north-west Syria as of Wednesday, affecting 2,124 people in more than 420 families, who are among approximately 2 million people displaced by conflict in the country.

Khadija Suleiman, a 50-year-old mother of seven, said she rarely felt the impact of the cold weather before her family was forced to flee their home.

“We were inside our warm houses and we had money. Now we live in tents and our financial situation is difficult. We spend the entire year afraid of the coming winter. It has become a tragedy for us,” she told The National.

Faisal, a 13-year-old living in the Zaytoun camp in the southern countryside of Aleppo, said he used to love playing in the snow.

“When I was in my village, I used to enjoy it when the snow fell, but now I’m sad,” he said.

“I played with it with my friends; but not in tents. Because winter for us has become a sad time. Our tent was destroyed because of the snowfall.”

Abdelmueen Al Masri, a father of nine, said he had been unable to go out to work for a week because of the bad weather in Afrin.

“When I don’t work, I don’t even have bread to feed my kids,” Mr Al Masri, 49, told The National.

He said he earned less than $4 a day working as a lumberjack.

“I had property, land and I was well off. But it was all taken away.”