Turkish aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) continue to support those in urgent need in northwestern Syria. Most recently, Vuslat Association, a nonprofit Turkish charity organization, delivered humanitarian aid to families struggling with the harsh winter conditions.
In a written statement, the association said that millions of people who have to live in tent cities need urgent humanitarian aid as winter conditions continue to worsen in many parts of Syria.
As part of the aid campaign launched for Syria, blankets and humanitarian aid materials were delivered to families living in camps in the north of the country and tent cities in the countryside of Idlib.
Vuslat Association Chairperson Muhsin Keleş stated that thousands of donors supported the emergency aid campaign, which they first announced on their social media accounts.
Noting that they delivered the first of the aid trucks to the camps at the border for those with urgent humanitarian needs in the region, Keleş said, "With the support of our donors, we have made our distributions to meet the urgent needs of the region. Our second expedition will depart this week."
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 last week, 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 United Nations deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, in charge of cross-border aid operations from Turkey to the northwest.
Many Turkish NGOs and state agencies, including the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) and Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), keep providing vital humanitarian aid and conducting humanitarian efforts in the northwestern region of Syria which hosts nearly 4 million people.
The Idlib region, where the 2.8 million displaced persons live, is the last Syrian enclave to oppose the regime in Damascus. Humanitarian aid reaches them mainly through the Turkey-Syria border under special U.N. authorization, free from interference from Damascus, 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, the last opposition stronghold, 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.