ALEPPO, Syria, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- As the weather is getting colder, displaced Syrians in a camp in northern Syria are facing additional challenges, particularly the children and elderly people.
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold, as many as 5,000 people are now facing the winter challenge in the Muqawamah camp, 15 km north of Aleppo city, according to a recent estimate by the Kurdish local administration that runs the camp.
Facing the cold is an added item to their list of sufferings since they had to flee their areas in the predominantly Kurdish Afrin enclave in 2018 when rebels barged in and took control over that area in Aleppo countryside.
In the camp, tents are set up next to one another on a rocky, uneven ground with alleyways separating them. Women sit outside to prepare food while their children play in front of them.
Probably the only sign of hope is the laughter of children who are chasing each other and play. Their innocence seems to be shielding them from the worries of their parents in that camp, but unlikely to protect them from the cold nights.
The grownups, however, mostly seemed disconnected and distant-minded, worrying about tomorrow as it has already been two years since they came to this camp, which was created by the Kurdish administration to ease their suffering after leaving Afrin.
Jihan Solafa, a 50-year-old woman, smoked a cigarette and filled the plastic jerrycan with water from a big red tanker in the camp a couple of times a day.
The woman lost her composure when asked about her situation.
"We are tired," she said while staggering to her feet after closing the jerrycan, "we are weary, we don't have money or a proper livelihood. We might be alive in the body, but we are dead here."
For Huda Rabah, another old woman in the camp, told Xinhua the people suffer in summer and winter, but they are clinging to hope that one day they will go back home.
"We are witnessing many tragedies as children and elderly people are suffering a lot from the cold in the winter and the heat in the summer and despite all of that we are resisting to return to our homes and our land," she said.
The Kurdish Red Crescent looks after the people's needs in the camp, but its officials also warned of the deteriorating condition of the people there.
Akram Arab, a humanitarian worker, said the people are suffering from lack of heating fuel or clothes, particularly for children.
"During summer, there were some solutions, but now, there is nothing shielding them from the coldness which is a real challenge," he said.
He also noted that there is a shortage of medication, which adds to the woes of the people there.
Despite the challenges, people in the camp enjoy a sense of security as a security team was formed from themselves. A small school, constituting of nine tents, also opened in the camp for around 500 children between 8-12 years old.
In 2018, the Turkey-backed rebels and Turkish forces stormed Afrin in northern Aleppo countryside and captured it from the Kurdish forces who were in control of the area as Ankara deems the Kurdish militias in northern Syria as "terrorists and separatists."
In October, Turkey launched a wide-scale campaign against Kurdish forces in northern Syria, capturing many areas on the Syrian-Turkish borderline.
