BEIRUT (AP) – The frigid winter weather in Syria’s war-torn northwest has killed two babies in segregated IDP camps, a doctor and a war observer said Tuesday.
Record-breaking temperatures and severe snow storms have engulfed much of the Middle East in recent weeks, from Gaza to Turkey. The cold and snow have hit many impoverished Syrians and Lebanese hard. At least one child died from the cold in Lebanon.
In northwestern Syria, according to the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian aid agency, 80% of the displaced people living in overcrowded informal camps are women and children.
dr. Mazen al-Tlawi, the medical director of the Al-Rahman specialist hospital in the Idlib village of Haranbush, confirmed the deaths of two babies from nearby IDP camps.
Fatima Mohammad al-Mahmoud was from the al-Laith camp. When she was seven days old, she was taken to the hospital at 2 a.m. “with cold limbs, dilapidated pupils and unresponsive,” al-Tlawi told The Associated Press by phone.
Amina Mohammad Salama, 2 months old, from Huwar al-Ais camp, arrived at the hospital cold and blue at 1pm on Monday with low blood sugar and extreme lung bleeding. “We received her, her situation worsened and worsened until she died at 6 a.m.,” al-Tlawi said.
According to al-Tlawi, about 7,000 thousand people live in the city of Haranbush, surrounded by 70,000 people in neighboring camps. He said the hospital is being flooded with cases because of the cold temperatures.
“We’re trying to get kids out of here in a few days because of the sheer volume of cases coming up. The entire hospital has only 15 children’s beds and eight cribs. Space is tight and we don’t have the opportunity to do more,” he said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war observer in Syria, also reported the deaths and called on the international community and humanitarian organizations to help the displaced people living in the camps.
The northwestern province is the last rebel stronghold in Syria. According to the United Nations, there are about 3 million refugees, most of whom are displaced in camps.