Nowhere to run for refugees in last stronghold
BEIRUT — Throughout Syria’s civil war, Maad alKhalaf helped other Syrians find shelter in the opposition enclave in the northwest as they fled government military advances around the country. Now he’s the one in need of refuge as a swift offensive overwhelmed his home village.
He joined hundreds of thousands in Idlib province scrambling to escape the widening, multifront assault by President Bashar Assad’s forces, squeezing into whatever structures they can find in a shrinking territory.
“There is no house of concrete or of mud or even a chicken coop that is not inhabited,” alKhalaf said. “People are in dire need of any shelter. Even a tent sometimes is not available.”
The son of a prominent landowning family in Qmenas, an ancient Aramaic village, alKhalaf fled with his family of five to a nearby town as the bombs began to fall. Within three days, that was swept up in the offensive as well, so they ran farther — to a village near the Turkish border, 18 miles from the front line.
There, they now live in a tent on a piece of farmland donated by a relative. More relatives moved in as well. Winter wind sweeps through the settlement, where 30 families huddle in 15 tents set up in the mud, sharing one toilet, one sink and a huge sense of relief that they are out of harm’s way, at least for now.
Nearly a quarter of the 3 million people in Idlib and surrounding areas have surged north as Russianbacked government forces advanced in recent weeks, determined to capture the last remaining oppositionheld territory.
Almost half of the 700,000 uprooted since Dec. 1 are children, the U.N. estimated. Schools have halted instruction, 26 immunization centers closed, threatening new outbreaks of diseases, and some 53 health facilities no longer operate, including three directly hit in air strikes or shelling. More than 370 civilians were killed since December, according to the U.N.
While it may not be the biggest single wave of displacement — nearly a million were on the move after a government offensive a year ago — this may be the most dire.
“This is truly the worst humanitarian crisis because of lack of resources, the surge in displacement over short periods, weaker emergency responses and because shrinking areas outside of government control means a major problem in providing shelter,” said Mohammed Hallaj, a coordinator for the area’s Response Coordination Group, which works with U.N. agencies to assess needs.