A blizzard and heavy rain hit the northwestern region of Syria, devastating IDP camps there, in the early hours of January 19, 2022, causing many tents to collapse completely, as well as partially or severely damaging others. The residents of the Jabal Camp in the Bulbul region of Afrin city in northern Aleppo governorate have called for emergency evacuation from the area as the road leading to the camps has been blocked by the snow, while the heavy rain has caused torrential flooding in the Atama Camps in the north of Idlib governorate.
SNHR stresses that the extreme weather conditions have a severe impact on the lives of the IDPs and forcibly displaced people, especially the residents of dozens of haphazardly erected camps and tents in northwest Syria, the vast majority of which lack the required residential facilities to withstand the impact of these weather conditions.
SNHR calls on international relief organizations, including the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to urgently respond to the rainstorms and blizzards and provide alternate residential units, protective covering, and heating materials for the displaced, as well as helping to excavate channels for rainwater as an emergency measure to drain it from inside the camps.
Exclusive image by SNHR shows a camp in Ma’rein in Izaz city north of Aleppo after the blizzard.
