Malnutrition and hunger strike Syria’s IDP camps

With each summer season poor health prevails all over the camps as a result of the high temperatures and lack of nutritious food due to the poor living conditions.

Where the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Syrian Expatriate Medical Association (SEMA), which has deployed more than 26 roaming teams in northwestern Syria to curb these phenomena,  statements and appeals have been submitted regarding the high incidence of malnutrition from which large numbers suffer, most of them women and children.

SEMA also confirmed that one out of three children in northern Syria suffers from malnutrition.

As evidence shows, in 2022-2023 about 5.5 million people including mothers and children aged 0-59 months in Syria will need direct nutrition assistance; half of them live in Northeast Syria. as it is harmful to the development of children and can lead to stunting (low height relative to age), wasting (low weight relative to height), and underweight (low weight relative to age) as well as micronutrient deficiencies.

The medical organizations operating in the region hope to secure adequate health care to limit the spread of this phenomenon in light of the deteriorating living conditions and the difficulty of providing medicine, food and the necessities of daily life.

WHO’s report titled “Malnutrition in Northeast Syria: the case for urgent action” published last month states that seven hundred thousand more children face hunger in Syria due to the country’s continuously deteriorating economy, especially in northeast Syria, adding that in the last six months, the total number of food-insecure children across the country has risen to more than 4.6 million. After more than ten years of conflict and displacement, an unprecedented number of children in Syria are now battling soaring rates of malnutrition.

“As evidence shows, in 2022-2023 about 5.5 million people including mothers and children aged 0-59 months in Syria will need direct nutrition assistance; half of them live in northeast Syria,” the report says.

Article and photos by Fared Al Mahlool; edited and translated from Arabic by SYRIAWISE Team