Refugees mourn children killed by cold in Syria camp

#SyriaWar 

Eight children have died in Rukban camp this month, as families blame terrible living conditions and lack of humanitarian aid for their deaths

Masoud al-Awwad lost his one-and-a-half-month-old daughter Yasmeen due to lack of medical services and dire living conditions (MEE)

Zouhir Al Shimale

Kaamil Ahmed

Friday 25 January 2019 18:05 UTC

Last update: 

Saturday 26 January 2019 15:27 UTC

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SyriaWar

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Refugees, Syrian refugees, Syrian War, Rukban, Children, Winter Storms

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Clutching her young baby to her chest to warm her up during one of many freezing nights that Syria's Rukban refugee camp has had to endure this winter, Samah al-Awwad unwittingly fell asleep.

When she woke with the sunrise, the bundle between her arms had turned cold.

“It was one of those dark, freezing nights when my Yasmeen was sleeping in my arms. There should be nowhere warmer than on my chest but it was cold even there,” said Samah, 33, choking on her words as she relived the moment.

“I don’t know how I fell asleep, but when I woke up at sunrise I felt a coldness between my hands, where my baby was. She was supposed to be warm.”

Yasmeen was born a month-and-a-half earlier in the neglected camp, located in a demilitarised zone of southeastern Syria near the Jordan border, just as it was enveloped by a hostile winter.

There should be nowhere warmer than on my chest but it was cold even there

- Samah al-Awaad, mother of one-month-old baby who died earlier this month

More than half of the 15 Syrian children who have died in refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon this winter lived in Rukban, an impoverished settlement of at least 40,000 internally displaced Syrians, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

When Samah got pregnant almost a year ago, she and her husband Masoud were hoping they would either be able to return to their home by the time Yasmeen was born, or be allowed to leave the camp for a hospital. Neither happened.

The couple had spent weeks trying to get Yasmeen through the winter, sleeping in shifts to ensure they could tend to the illnesses she had suffered since her difficult birth.

The delivery almost killed both mother and child and left Samah in a 24-hour coma. She puts her survival down to the “miraculous” work of a camp midwife. The camp had no incubator to keep the frail newborn in.

“Health care facilities are barely functioning and have very few staff or medical supplies. There are no generators or fuel to provide even minimum warmth to alleviate the bitterly cold weather,” WHO said in a statement on 17 January.