During the brutal military escalation on the governorate of Idlib, Um Ahmad, a 50 years old woman, was working on her sewing machine preparing the last pillow in her house in the village of Talmanse in the Southern suburb of Idlib.
Due to the density of the atrocious bombing on her hometown, she was forced to leave her home along with her elder son to the unknown future. This uncertain and ambiguous fate is shared with thousands of their fellow civilians, who were bound to leave their homes too and be forcibly displaced to the Northern of Idlib in order to find a safe refuge in the camps or the different scattered shelters.
Um Ahmad informed us that: “This sewing machine has presented a precious assistance in fixing the old clothes of the residents and a valuable support to sew new clothes to them.
So, when we were forced to leave our houses, the only item I thought immediately to take with them is my precious machine along with the pillow I was working on.
I knew in my subconscious that the machine would be worth the trouble of carrying it in this long painful journey because it would be helping my family, neighbors and the other displaced civilians wherever we would go.”
This arduous journey took Um Ahmad to settle down temporarily in one of the camps in Northern Idlib, where she had to share a tent with other families due to the limited number of provided tents, and in the midst of unhuman conditions in this harsh winter.
It is so depressing, unfortunate, and miserable the situation of Um Ahmad and the thousands of innocent civilians. There are no words that could describe their deplorable living conditions that lack the very necessary basic living standards of the human being.
Um Ahmad and her neighbors were forced between two options: staying in their homes and facing their death or being forced to leave their houses to the ambiguous future. Indeed, the brutal military escalation on Idlib governorate, that started last December 2019, left them only with these two choices.
Unfortunately, the risky and unhuman life mode was imposed on them for the simple reason of asking to live in freedom and dignity under the umbrella of a democratic government.
The most painful element in this story is that the whole world Is watching what this ongoing tragedy and catastrophe, without any serious effort from the international community to put an end to the suffering of the Syrian people.
And as Um Ahmad was wondering: “The only remaining elements from my house are this sewing machine and the pillow. So, do you think that this machine could fix what the war has bedeviled?”.
The number of displaced people reached 300,000 in only December 2019, due to the escalation of the barbaric bombing targeting civilians everywhere in Maarat al-Numan, the majority of whom are children and women whose fate is uncertain and are denied of their basic rights which put their lives and future at huge risk.
It is clear that the international community is being careless about the continuing violations of humanitarian and International laws as the Humanitarian Law, that obliges all states parties, to protect the civilian population, women and children from targeting in the armed conflicts areas.
People in #Idlib need us to spread the word so the whole world bears witness and so decision-makers are held responsible for ending this humanitarian catastrophe.
#WhatRemainsOfIdlib
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