An aid worker from Save the Children’s partner, Hurras Network, said:
“Two sisters, aged four and three, died when their tent burned down because their heater was unsafe. Their pregnant mother sustained burns on her body.
“A 14-year-old boy who was living with his family of seven in a small tent succumbed to freezing temperatures.”
Hurras Network also recorded the deaths of two girls aged ten and three, who died from asphyxiation from their heating equipment, alongside a one- year-old girl and a seven-month-old boy who died from cardiac arrest during the severe cold.
Since December 1, 2019, as many as 450,000 children have been forced to flee their homes in Idlib, Syria, due to a brutal escalation in the ongoing conflict. The region has seen more than a quarter of its population displaced.1
Mira*, a 13 year-old girl displaced to a camp, said:
“I did not like the snow in the camp because it was really cold and both my sister and I got sick. Part of our tent collapsed because of the weight of the snow on it. I did not have clothes or anything to keep me warm in our tent. I want shoes to play in the snow like my friends.”
Sonia Khush, Save the Children’s Syria Country Director, said:
“As more civilians desperately seek safety on Syria’s border with Turkey, we’re worried that the death toll will increase given the absolutely inhumane living conditions that women and children are finding themselves in, with sub-zero temperatures, no roof over their heads and no warm clothes. Even when they do manage to find a tent, a heater and a mattress, they risk being asphyxiated by their heating equipment or seeing their shelter burn down.”
Over the course of just three days earlier this month nearly 145,000 people fled their homes to rush to the Turkish border2 More than 80,000 people are now living in open fields covered in snow, exposed to northern Syria’s freezing winter.
The vast majority of people displaced are children and women, who have been forced to flee with just the clothes they are wearing. To keep warm, they resort to burning plastic and other combustible materials, when they can’t find wood.
Save the Children is calling on all warring parties to respect international humanitarian and human rights laws and to protect schools, hospitals and other vital civilian infrastructure from attacks. Particular effort should be given to protecting children who are extremely vulnerable to the impact of explosive weapons.
