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IF YOU THOUGHT the violence in Syria had ended – think again. It’s got so bad in Idlib that last Tuesday many mosques had to cancel Ramadan prayers – because buildings where crowds gather had were becoming targets.
Over the last three weeks there have been almost daily attacks in Idlib. There were attacks last Monday: local estimates put the number of dead at a minimum of 17, including at least five children. The deaths are in addition to some 300 deaths which have happened since violence escalated in April.
Because places where the public gather – including markets – are targets, much of the population is staying home. As night falls, homes stay dark – as people know the possible consequences of putting the lights on. Shopping is hazardous: people stretch out their food supplies, breaking their fasts in the dark.
The charity Islamic Relief has funded a major trauma hospital for some years. Part of it was built in an underground cave, in an attempt to protect it from bombing. It is one of two hospitals hit by bombs last Tuesday.
This is the reality in Syria – where the US president claims the war is won, or over, or nearly over, or whatever nonsense he is spouting from day to day. An Islamic Relief aid worker has sent out the following eye witness account.
The closure of one of Idlib’s largest trauma centres will have devastating impact on innocent men, women and children who have become collateral damage in this brutal crisis.
People are simply terrified and do not know what is going to happen next. In the last few weeks some 300,000 people have had to leave their homes out of fear and hundreds of thousands of others think that they will be next.
The Islamic Relief Ramadan operation in Syria. PHOTO: Islamic Relief
Ramadan is supposed to be a holy month, where families and friends can gather in peace but in north-west Syria there is simply no respite. There is an ever-shrinking amount of food and supplies of basic medicine are fast running out.
Hospitals have had to shut their doors or reduce their services. Schools are not operating in many areas and now mosques are having to close because time and again in this crisis, places where civilians gather have been seen as fair game and have left people feeling like absolutely nowhere is safe.
Scores have also been robbed of the most basic of pleasures of spending Ramadan with their families and have been forcibly separated from them by the violence. As displacement has escalated rapidly, people say they have not been able to reach loved ones and simply do not know if their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and sons and daughters are safe or if they have become the latest victims in this crisis which has already claimed far too many lives.
Every bomb that falls, only acts as a reminder that not only is this tragedy far from over, but that for the three million people in Idlib, things might only get worse.
•For more information from Islamic Relief or to support their work in Syria, go to:
www.islamic-relief.org.uk
•Read more about it:
Islamic Relief backs south London Eco-Ramadan
Islamic Relief UK launches Ramadan appeal
