I felt like snow when I touched the baby

Syria: When a father dies of cold in front of his child and he cannot do anything to save her, the pain is being endured by the Syrians who are living in displacement camps because of the civil war.

Two children, including a seven-day-old girl, died overnight in tent displacement camps in Syria’s Idlib province due to severe cold weather. This is telling of the dire humanitarian situation in this area.

“When I touched her, she felt like snow,” said the baby’s father, Mohamed al-Hasan. Their seven-day-old daughter, Fatima, died overnight at Al Rahman Hospital in Idlib. Idlib is home to millions of Syrians who have fled their homes due to a decade-long civil war and are living in displacement camps.

Fadi Halaq, a doctor at Al-Rahman Hospital, said that Fatima had turned blue. By the time he reached the hospital, he was bleeding from his nose and mouth. She was born in the same hospital a week back and was fine, but recently died of severe cold.

Al-Hasan said, “We were able to do a little preparation for the winter, but we didn’t get everything we needed. It’s hard to secure work and income. His family moved from southern Aleppo province seven years ago.” Now they live in tent settlements.

Two-month-old Amina Salameh, who lived with her family at the al-Jabal displacement camp in northern Idlib, also died. When he reached Al-Rahman, his pulse was running, but the doctors could not keep him alive. At least three other children have died of cold in the past two weeks.

In the past two weeks, severe cold has wreaked havoc in north-west Syria, where more than 4 million displaced Syrians live. About 1.7 million of these internally displaced persons (IDPs) live in tented settlements after fleeing President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. The insurgency started in Syria in 2011. Since then, about five lakh people have died and lakhs of people have been displaced.