The snow that blanketed Aleppo brought misery to its inhabitants. It was just one more unbearable burden added to the horror and toil of the war. A freak winter storm that hit the region claimed the lives of children in refugee camps in neighboring countries, but also some inside Syria itself, including the battered city of Aleppo. The reason was quite simple: There were no means of keeping warm, and what little there were, the average person could never hope to afford. Where once children were overjoyed when the rare snow fell so that they could skip school and go out and play, they now feared that very same snow could kill them.
Wrecked by relentless war, Aleppo is now also freezing, with no power, no water, no gasoline, no cooking gas and no heating. A city hit by those chronic shortages was in no shape to cope with such a fierce winter storm. As temperatures plummeted below freezing, schools, businesses and government offices shut down. The city came to an eerie standstill as people huddled together for warmth, wearing their heaviest winter clothes indoors. Frostbite, cold burns and vascular diseases became commonplace; the people’s spirit was broken, just like their city.
