Three children in Idlib province in Syria, drowned after unusually heavy summer rains damaged the tents of internally displaced people. Nearly a million people fled to border camps late last year, and earlier this year, due to the Syrian government’s and it’s ally, Russia’s bombing campaigns.

The children drowned while they were swimming in a pool of water from the downpour. They were refugees, who lived in houses near a camp.

A displaced Syrian, Mustafa al-Diri, said, “The rain water mixed with the sewage water inside the camp, all our things became wet and became unfit for use, the food got wet and we had nothing left to sleep on.” He added, “My five children and I tried to carry what we could away from the rain and water, but the land became mud and we could not get anything out”.

Aid relief that had recently been handed out to refugees in the area was also destroyed. Residents of the camps say they live in tents which neither protect them from the heat of summer, nor the cold of winter. They want camps made of stone rather than of cloth.

According to the Middle East Eye, at another nearby camp for Syria’s internally displaced, most of the residents had to take shelter in a neighbouring village. They later returned to their camp to try to rebuild their destroyed tents.

Umm Muhammed Umar