The Assistance Coordination Unit (ACU) issued a special report on the numbers and needs of IDPs living in camps in northwestern Syria. The report relied on a survey of 320 IDP camps distributed across 14 sub-districts in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.
The study pointed to shortages of heating equipment, noting that some camps need maintenance while others need to be replaced altogether.
The aid group indicated that nine percent of the total rooms in the camps surveyed required maintenance, while 25 percent of the tents were in urgent need of repair. It also noted that 29 percent of the tents need to be replaced, while 26 percent of the prefab cabins need maintenance.
The survey pointed out that the residents of 49 IDP camps face difficulties in access to medical centers. It called for establishing major medical centers in the camps where there are large numbers of displaced people.
Moreover, ACU pointed out that at least 56,501 IDPs arrived in camps in northwestern Syria in the period between early March and mid-May as a result of the military escalation by the Assad regime and its allies in northern rural Hama and Idlib province.
ACU also said that 25 percent of the IDP camps do not have access to food baskets, stressing the need for making food security a top priority in the camps covered by the survey.
The aid group also called for providing the means of heating to the IDP camps, pointing out that 61 percent of the camps covered by the survey did not receive heating fuel last winter.
ACU called on all countries concerned with the Syrian affairs, especially the group of friends of the Syrian people, to find real solutions and provide security and safety to help the IDPs to return to their homes. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)