A steady stream of wounded arrived on Monday at an overwhelmed hospital in the northwestern Syrian rebel-held city of Darkush after the deadly earthquake which hit Turkey and violently hit the neighboring country, devastated by a war that has been going on for almost 12 years. Mothers comforted crying boys.
The quake struck the last stronghold of the Syrian opposition, on the border with Turkey, as well as areas further away in the hands of the government in Damascus, killing hundreds of people.
Amidst the chaos of the hospital, Osama Abdul Hamid sat with a dazed expression, his face covered in wounds.
He had just escaped alive with his wife and four children from their apartment in the nearby town of Azmarin. Many of his neighbors weren’t so lucky.
“The building has four floors and no one has managed to get out of three of them”said Abdul Hamid between sobs. “God has given me a new chance at life,” he grieved.
The powerful earthquake that woke residents before dawn has caused further damage and suffering in Syria’s last rebel enclave, destroyed by years of fighting and bombing and which is home to millions of displaced Syrians who have fled their homes due to the civil war.
Overflowing hospitals
Hospitals and clinics were flooded with wounded. In the enclave, in the province of Idlib, many displaced people live in appalling conditions in makeshift camps. Many others there and in nearby government-held areas are staying in buildings damaged by previous bombings and more vulnerable to earthquakes.
The quake caused total and partial damage to buildings in at least 58 villages, towns and cities in northwestern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war watchdog.
By early Monday afternoon, 1,900 had already been confirmed dead – more than 1,100 in Turkey and nearly 800 in Syria – and that number is expected to rise by the hour.
In opposition-controlled territory in Syria, more than 200 deaths have been reported, but this is believed to be the case hundreds more are buried under the rubble from their home.
more suffering
“This disaster will worsen the suffering of Syrians who are already battling a major humanitarian crisis,” Carsten Hansen, director of the Norwegian Refugee Council for the Middle East, said in a statement.
“Millions of people have already been displaced by war in the wider region and now many more will be displaced by the disaster,” he warned.
At Darkush hospital in western Idlib, Abdel Hamid told how her family was sleeping in their apartment when they were awakened by a strong and prolonged shaking. They escaped. But “before we got to the door of the building, the whole building fell on us,” she said.
A wooden door protected them from the worst force of the collapse: they all came out alive. He, his wife and three of the children sustained head injuries, but are all stable.
The northwestern province of Idlib is considered the last opposition stronghold in Syria and is dominated primarily by the Levant Liberation Agency, an Islamist alliance that includes al Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate, formerly known as al Nusra Front.
4.6 million people live in Idlib and the northern parts of neighboring Aleppo, also outside the control of the government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, of whom nearly 3 million have been displaced by the armed conflict that began in 2011 in the Arab country . .
Source: AP and EFE
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.