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Fleeing violence in north-west Syria, families now forced to burn clothes to stay warm
Families fleeing violence in north-west Syria have resorted to burning their clothes to protect themselves against freezing winter temperatures, UN humanitarians said on Friday, while also warning of a potential “bloodbath” unless a ceasefire is agreed.
“Many people have resorted to burning their spare clothes, pieces of furniture or materials that let out toxic fumes,” spokesperson Jens Laerke from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told journalists in Geneva.
“The front lines and relentless violence continue to move closer to these areas packed with displaced people, with bombardments increasingly affecting displacement sites and their vicinity,” he warned.
Since 1 December, OCHA has reported that more than 900,000 civilians have been displaced, amid an offensive by Government forces against armed groups in the last opposition-held areas of Idlib Governorate.
The number exceeds the humanitarian community’s “worst-case planning figures”, Mr Laerke said.
“Let me stress that when I say 900,000 people it’s mostly children – 60 per cent of those are minors. Most of the displaced have moved into increasingly crowded areas towards the border between Idlib and Turkey.”
About a third of them - some 330,000 – “have fled to areas in northern Aleppo governorate which is adjacent to Idlib”, the OCHA official added, and 170,000 of those newly displaced are likely living “in the open or in unfinished buildings”.
In addition, more than 280,000 are staying in camps “which are already stretched beyond capacity”, Mr Laerke explained, “or in makeshift camps, where they set up individual tents but where there are no basic services, such as latrines”.
The development follows an appeal for an immediate ceasefire on Tuesday by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday which was echoed by the organisation’s Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, in his briefing to the Security Council.
Stressing that hostilities are now approaching densely populated areas, such as Idlib city and Bab al-Hawa border crossing, which has among the highest concentration of displaced civilians in north-west Syria and also serves as a humanitarian lifeline, Mr. Pedersen warned of the “devastating scale of humanitarian suffering”.
Also addressing the Security Council, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Mark Lowcock told the 15-Member body that at least 100 civilians have been killed so far this month in air and ground strikes in the north-west, 35 of them children.
He reported that although people are trying to find shelter in increasingly crowded areas, nowhere is safe.
“Almost 50,000 people are sheltering under trees or in other open spaces,” Mr Lowcock said, adding that he received “daily reports of babies and other young children dying in the cold. Imagine the grief of a parent who escaped a warzone with their child, only to watch that child freeze to death.”
Echoing the UN call for an end to the violence – part of Syria’s near-nine-year war – Mr Laerke warned that unless it happened, humanitarians feared “a bloodbath”.
Amid growing needs, OCHA now requires more funding to help vulnerable civilians.
“The humanitarian readiness and response plan for north-west Syria that I’ve talked about earlier and that was completed last month has been revised upwards,” he said. “We initially sought to help 800,000 displaced people over the next six months; we are now planning to address the needs of 1.1 million people. The requirements have also increased from an initial $336 million to about half a billion, $500 million. We have so far received funding of about $100 million.”
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- SOUNDBITE (EN) — Jens Laerke, spokesperson, UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): Some 900,000 people have been displaced in north-west Syria since 1 December, exceeding worst-case planning figures by the humanitarian community. Let me stress that when I say 900,000 people it’s mostly children – 60 per cent of those are minors. Most of the displaced have moved into increasingly crowded areas towards the border between Idlib and Turkey. About a third of them, some 330,000 of them have fled to areas in northern Aleppo governorate which is adjacent to Idlib; 170,000 of the newly displaced people are estimated to be living in the open or in unfinished buildings. More than 280,000 are staying in camps which are already stretched beyond capacity, or in makeshift camps, where they set up individual tents but where there are no basic services, such as latrines. In the freezing winter, many people have resorted to burning their spare clothes, pieces of furniture or materials that let out toxic fumes. The front lines and relentless violence continue to move closer to these areas packed with displaced people, with bombardments increasingly affecting displacement sites and their vicinity. We call for an immediate ceasefire to prevent further suffering and what we fear may end in a bloodbath. In this background, the humanitarian readiness and response plan for north-west Syria that I’ve talked about earlier and that was completed last month has been revised upwards. We initially sought to help 800,000 displaced people over the next six months; we are now planning to address the needs of 1.1 million people. The requirements have also increased from an initial $336 million to about half a billion, $500 million. We have so far received funding of about $100 million.”
- Medium shot: Press briefing room, journalists, podium with UN logo.
- Medium shot, journalists, profile.
- Close-up: journalist looking down, podium with podium speaker and UN logo to rear.
- Close-up: journalist in front of shot, podium speakers to rear with UN logo.
- Medium shot: Press briefing room, journalists, podium with UN logo.
- Close-up: journalists, profile.
- Close-up: hands typing on laptops.
- Close-up: journalists, profile.
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New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
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- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
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Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
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Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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