Parts of Syria have been hit by snowfall and severe winter cold, exacerbating the difficulties for thousands of people already desperately seeking shelter from the country’s ongoing civil war. In neighbouring countries, where hundreds of thousands of Syrians have sought refuge, harsher weather is also setting in.
“Many of the refugees in… countries such as Jordan and Lebanon live in terrible conditions and are struggling to find warmth as temperatures fall,” said Robert Mardini, director for the Near and Middle East with the International Committee of the Red Cross. “They live with the uncertainty of not knowing what tomorrow will bring, or even if they will ever make it back home one day.”
More than 12 million Syrians, nearly half of them children, are now in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, according to the ICRC.