On February 27, 2023, six children and two women suffered burn of varying degrees in a fire that broke out in a tent in al-Amal IDPs Camp near Izmarin village in the western suburbs of Idlib governorate. The displaced family living in the tent had survived the earthquake that hit southern Turkey and northwestern Syria on February 6, 2023, and had been relocated to al-Amal Camp following the earthquake.
The fire, which was caused by the misuse of a heating device, completely destroyed the tent as well as damaging many nearby tents.
On the next day, February 28, 2023, two of the injured children, one-year-old Mohammad Khaled al-Hussein and his five-year-old sister, Rasha, died of their burn wounds after they had been transferred to a hospital in Turkey.
On Friday, March 3, 2023, a third child severely burnt in the blaze, eight-year-old Zaid Ahmad Ghannam, who had also been transferred to a Turkish hospital for treatment, died of his injuries.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) calls on international relief organizations to urgently meet the basic needs of IDPs in camps and the victims of the earthquake.
SNHR stresses that the late delivery of UN relief aid to northwestern Syria, which left local civil society groups to face the horrific aftermath of the earthquake on its own, has led to more people dying under the rubble of buildings destroyed in the quake. Also, the UN’s response was not proportionate to the catastrophe of the earthquake in northwestern Syria, with some of the UN mechanisms being invoked late, while others were not invoked at all, such as issuing a distress call to mobilize efforts and teams from around the world.
Exclusive photo for SNHR taken on March 1, 2023, showing the location of the tent where the fire broke out.
Photos of the siblings Mohammad and Rasha al-Hussein who died on February 28, 2023.
Photo of Zaid Ghannam who died on March 3, 2023.
