The weeklong operation to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians from Aleppo to the northwestern city of Idlib is complete, but refugees face a new enemy: Snow, rain and freezing temperatures.
“All civilians who wished to be evacuated have been (evacuated),” said Krista Armstrong, the spokeswoman of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The aid group led the complex operation in snowy winter conditions with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent after the Bashar Assad regime took complete control of Aleppo on Thursday.
The snowy weather is wreaking havoc. Two children were killed on Friday when heavy snowfall collapsed several tents.
“The snowstorm has caused the collapse of our tents and closure of roads amid a scarcity of water and foodstuff,” Qadir Darwish, a Syrian refugees, told wire agency reporters.
Little snow is forecast in the Idlib province this week, but daytime temperatures are expected to dip to -14 degrees Celsius while overnight temperatures will be as low as -16 degrees Celsius. Refugees can expect rain almost daily, according to AccuWeather.
Thousands of refugees who fled Aleppo with only the clothes on their backs and few belongings arrived in Idlib amid freezing temperatures. Many are now sleeping in unheated buildings or tents. Snowfall has also hampered the delivery of bread and foodstuff as the roads leading to Idlib were closed.
Darwish appealed to the Turkish aid agency IHH and other relief groups to intervene to provide refugees in Idlib with more tents to protect them from the snowstorm.
While the refugees’ most pressing concern is how to deal with the weather, they also say the area is an “open-air prison,” severely limiting their movements at a time when the Syrian Army is expected to target Idlib next.
At least 25,000 people, including opposition fighters, have left east Aleppo since Thursday under an evacuation deal that saw the city come under full regime control.
“We did not want to leave our land, but they used every weapon available to force us out,” Abu Mohammed, a father of four from east Aleppo, told an AFP reporter. “Now they've prepared a prison for us in order to besiege us and bombard us.”
Idlib city has been held since March 2015 by a coalition of opposition fighters. Since then, tens of thousands of people from across the country have flooded the province.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 700,000 internally displaced people have found shelter in Idlib since Syria’s war erupted nearly six years ago.

Source: Arab News