Cold wave increases Syrian refugees’s misery

Storm Thallasa pounded Lebanon and northern Syria last Saturday, toppling tents and flooding many of the refugee camps.

Last year there were reports of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, mostly children, freezing to death, CARE reported.

CARE’s regional Syria response director, Richard Hamilton said “For Syrians, both refugees and the displaced inside Syria, who are already living in very precarious circumstances, this is another big challenge. Millions have fled war torn Syria and more are displaced in-country, with few if any belongings, and are now forced to face freezing snowstorms, amplifying already insufferable circumstances.”

It is not a deliberate lack of preparedness,” said Hamilton. “Families simply don’t have the necessary means to purchase fuel, or repair their shelters or severely substandard housing. They need more assistance, but this crisis response remains underfunded,”he added.

In addition, the mayor of "al-Sahla" municipality Adnan al-Khatib acknowledged Lebanon’s dereliction in dealing with the Syrian refugees’ crisis and pointed out that the storm crisis is repeated every year as a result of the snow that closes the roads. Al-Khatib called the European Union and the operating humanitarian organizations to intervene to resolve this humanitarian crisis

In Jordan, the snowstorm hit the massive Zaatari refugee camp, where thousands of Syrians have sought shelter.

So far in 2016, at least 4 Syrian refugees died of exposure to the elements in Lebanon, while two Syrian children perished during the November 2015 snowstorm, Gulf news reported.

Storm increases the suffering of Syrians in besieged areas

With the increasing number of victims of malnutrition in Madaya and al-Zabadani, the snow storm comes to put the people of the two towns in Damascus countryside in front of the new challenge of severe cold in the absence of heating materials.

The severe cold wave caused an increase in the price of firewood in besieged Madaya by Assad terrorists and Hezbollah militias to 400 pounds per kilo.

Also the frost hit agricultural crops in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama countrysides after temperatures drop to 7 below zero.