200 Internally Displaced Families Endure Sever Humanitarian Conditions near the al-Lataminah City

Up to two hundred internally displaced families suffer the lack of life’s basic needs in a camp they erected near their city of al-Lataminah in rural Hama, while they are unable to return to their homes in the city controlled by the Jaysh al-Izza/Army of Glory for a variety of reasons, on top of which is the missing capacity to renovate their affected houses and the town being a constant target for different forms of shelling by the Syrian regular forces, as the testimonies, obtained by Syrians for Truth and Justice/STJ, show.

On January 12, 2019, STJ’s field researcher met Ismail al-Hamroush, one of the camp’s residents, who said:

 “In 2014, the city of al-Lataminah was a target to a violent shelling by the Syrian regular forces; the thing which forcibly displaced almost all of its population. A major part of the displaced residents headed to the borders with Turkey and camps in Idlib, while about 200 families –up to 1500 displaced persons, chose to erect a camp by themselves on agricultural lands in the surrounding of the city and which they own. They bought and erected the tents themselves, and, for the whole duration, they have not received any type of aid from relief organizations. This winter, with the storms surging, the tents were uprooted and torn apart, and the majority of the families ended up in the open air.”

Al-Hamroush referred to the reasons preventing the people from going back to their homes and renovating them, saying:

 “The city is located at the immediate line of contact between the Syrian regular forces and the Jaysh al-Izza faction and is considered the latter’s principal stronghold. It constantly endures shelling. Even during the deal that provided for the establishment of buffer zones and the stationing of the Turkish observation forces, the city is still vulnerable to shelling. In addition to this, most of the houses are completely destroyed, and the cost of reconstruction or renovation is considered high, which the people cannot afford.  Today, about 8 thousand persons live in the town.”

Concerning the humanitarian and medical conditions, al-Hamroush pointed out that the camp lacks basic medical services, where 75 patients require medicines for chronic diseases. On a daily basis, no less than five patients suffer cold-related illnesses, such as respiratory diseases and cases of diarrhea, while there is not a medical point in the camp. In addition to this, the camp is short of heating means and preliminary services. 

STJ’s field researcher recorded the targeting of the city of al-Lataminah with various heavy arms for more than 40 times since the beginning of 2019 to January 16, 2019, where the Syrian regular forces, stationed near the towns of Halfaya, al-Masasneh, zaleen, al-Jub al-Ahmar- used heavy artillery shells, mortar munitions, rocket-propelled grenades and tank ammunition.

On January 11, 2019, a drone dropped explosive bombs on the city, causing the death of the 14-year-old girl Rufidah Satouf al-Hdairy and the injury of a woman. 

For his part, Ahmad Mansour, an official of the al-Lataminah City Local Council, called on the relief organizations many time, as to support the camp and renew the tents, but he received no answer at all.

STJ monitored the conditions of the internally displaced persons’ camps in several areas that are under the control of armed opposition groups, where most of the camps endure poor living conditions, and several deaths of children and adults due to cold and lacking healthcare were recorded. [1]