The construction of nearly 52,500 of the 63,500 briquette houses destined for the Idlib region, northwestern Syria's last opposition bastion, has been completed and 46,000 homes have been delivered to families in need, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said Saturday.
Accompanied by Rahmi Doğan, governor of the southern Turkish border province of Hatay, and Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) Chair Yunus Sezer, Soylu visited the sites where briquette houses are being constructed in Idlib.
Soylu visited families who settled in the new briquette houses and those still living in tents, conveying the greetings of the Turkish people and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the community and handing out toys and chocolates to the children as AFAD aid boxes were distributed.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Soylu noted that approximately 3.9 million people live in Idlib and that Turkish agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) under the coordination of the AFAD are working to support the people here.
Stating that there are approximately 2,900 briquette houses in the region, Soylu said: "Houses built by our president, our Cabinet members and all our friends are also in this region. Hundreds of thousands of people live here. So far, approximately 63,500 briquette houses have been planned in the Idlib region. A total of 52,500 of them have been completed, the construction of 7,500 more has begun. About 46,000 of the completed ones have been delivered."
The latest storm has piled misery on war-ravaged Syria's northern refugee camps, where most of the displaced live in tents, many of which are collapsing under the weight of snow. Other areas are enduring heavy rains or freezing temperatures.
Many of Syria's nearly 3 million displaced people face dire winter conditions with a bitter snowstorm hammering the region, the United Nations warned recently, as it urged the international community to do more to protect them. It also stated that nearly 1,000 tents hosting displaced civilians collapsed due to snowfall in northwestern Syria.
"It’s a real disaster zone," said Mark Cutts, the U.N. deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis who is in charge of cross-border aid operations from Turkey to the northwest.
The Idlib region, where the 2.8 million displaced live, is the last Syrian enclave to oppose the regime in Damascus. Humanitarian aid reaches the region mainly through the Turkey-Syria border under special U.N. authorization free from Damascus interference, which expires in July.
Idlib falls within a de-escalation zone forged under an agreement between Turkey and Russia in March 2020. However, the Syrian regime has consistently violated the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.
Since April 2018, attacks on Idlib have dramatically intensified, causing new waves of refugees to flow toward the Turkish border and putting the country – which already hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees – in a difficult position.
The lives of Syrian people dealing with many difficulties in rural Idlib's tent camps have become much harder due to the recent winter conditions. As the humanitarian catastrophe in the region has reached new heights, people try to survive by taking shelter under trees or shaky tents built on mud and puddles. Many Turkish NGOs and state agencies, including the AFAD, the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) and the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), continue to provide vital aid and conduct relief efforts in the region.