Two babies freeze to death in IDP camps in Syria’s Idlib

Two children died overnight, including a seven-day-old baby, in tented displacement camps in Syria’s Idlib province due to severe cold weather, drawing attention to the dire humanitarian condition in the region.
“When I touched her, she felt like ice,” Mohamad Al-Hassan told Al Jazeera. His seven-day-old daughter Fatima passed away overnight at the Al Rahman hospital in Idlib, which is home to millions of Syrians who have fled the decade-old war.
“We were able to prepare a little bit for the winter,” said Al-Hassan, “but we couldn’t get everything we need. It’s hard to secure work and an income.”
His family was displaced seven years ago from southern Aleppo province, before moving to the Laith displacement camp further north where they have since lived in tented settlements.
Dr Fadi Hallak of the Al-Rahman hospital said that Fatima was blue and bleeding from the nose and mouth by the time she reached the hospital. “She was born here a week ago without any complications,” Hallak told Al Jazeera. “But she, unfortunately, died because of the freezing cold in recent days.”
Freezing cold weather over the past two weeks has swept northwest 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 the forces of President Bashar al-Assad. The enclave is the last opposition stronghold in the war-torn country.
Amina Salameh, a two-month-old who lived with her family in the Al-Jabal displacement camp in northern Idlib, also passed away this morning. She had a pulse when she arrived at Al-Rahman, but doctors couldn’t keep her alive.
“She was blue and had a slow pulse,” said Dr Hallak. “We tried to keep her warm and nourish her”.
At least three other children have died in the cold in the past two weeks.