“This is all what is left from our possessions!!”. In such a desperate shaky voice, Um Yusuf was explaining to us how a full house turns into a torn bag in a couple of minutes due to the brutal bombing on Idlib governorate since three weeks.
Um Yusuf added: “When the bombing intensified and the strikes increased on our village in the Southern suburb of Idlib, we left our home in a hurry, seeking a safe shelter. And after a difficult and risky journey, we reached one of the camps on the Syrian Turkish borders.”
While looking in the empty horizon, she described the escape from death: “We were unable to carry anything with us from our home. Actually, we did not think of that even.
It was like a dream, or rather a nightmare. I couldn’t believe at that moment that my three little children; my husband and I are still alive.
” In a smile attempt, she said: “do you know when people talk about seeing death metaphorically? I think now that they were not exaggerating, and it happens to see death, witness it, and survive it in a miracle. It’s like you have been reborn.”
Um Yusuf thought that they would be away only for a couple of days, then they will return back home. Unfortunately, and as she said: “I have never ever thought that I would leave my home with no return in the short-term.”
However, Um Yusuf and her husband were determined to go back home on a rainy night, with a flash of hope to carry to take some of their basic belongings.
“When we reached the outskirts of the village, we had this feeling that something bad had happened. When we arrived to our home, we didn’t recognize it. It was known to us only from its location, but not from its front.”
“The beautiful house had turned into ruins!! It became only scattered stones here and there. And, the smell of gunpowder was everywhere.”
She described that shocking moment: “I couldn’t stand there. I just sat down there and cried my eyes out. Then, I started looking for the remaining of our belonging from what we used to call once HOME, until I found this torn bag”.
Um Yusuf carried her torn bag, took what is left from her little daughter’s clothes, and returned back with her husband to the camp.
“Our dreams and our memories were all buried under our house’s rubble; with the exception of this bag! We will carry this bag though it’s torn, and we will continue this journey though it’s full of risks and pain.”
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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