Syrian war makes IDP child in Syria’s Raqqa amnesiac, speechless
The child Saleh al-Freij with his mother in al-Younani makeshift camp in Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria, Dec. 27 – North Press
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Maryam al-Ahmad, 48, an IDP in al-Younani camp, 1 km south of the city of Raqqa in northern Syria, constantly watches her child all day with the fear of losing him, especially since he is unaware of his surrounding or the danger that awaits him, as he does not know the way back to his tent even though he wanders inside the camp.
When Maryam’s son is out of her sight, she is terrified and started searching for him, she often finds him sitting alone hiding from the other children, or heading away to a place he does not know.
Children’s health is seriously endangered in war. Some of them are badly affected physically, while others suffer from serious psychological conditions that leave scars on their personality forever.
The mother of the 7-year-old Saleh al-Freij, said that the fear of the warplanes and the sounds of bombing caused him amnesia and a mental disorder that made him speechless.
The family hails from the eastern countryside of Hama in central Syria. They were displaced to Raqqa four years ago due to the military operations between the Syrian government forces and the Islamic State Organization (ISIS) militants.
“When the warplanes started bombing, my child ran away to the valley, since then, he became speechless and gradually lost his memory,” the mother said.
The battles in her area affect her son badly, as he will not be able to live a normal life like other children anymore.
“Before the bombing, he was a normal child, the warplane incident affected him badly, now he cannot differentiate between dangerous and non-dangerous acts,” al-Ahmad added.
“He plays alone and never interacts with other children, he never sleeps at night, he always wanders to the open alone, I always follow him,” the heartbroken mother noted.
In a statement released in May, the UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adele Khodr said, “More than 12.3 million Syrian children need humanitarian assistance.”
“Millions of children still live in fear, uncertainty, and need in Syria and neighboring countries,” she added.
“The crisis in Syria is far from over,” Khodr noted, as she stated that 213 children have been killed or injured during the first three months of 2022.
Al-Ahmad tried to see doctors for her child’s condition in Tabqa and Raqqa, but all in vain. The doctors asked her to take him to Damascus, but she cannot because of her difficult living condition.
Like the majority of the camp’s residents, al-Ahmad suffers from difficult living and humanitarian conditions, as they depend for their livelihood on working in farmlands, with wages that barely cover their daily needs.
“More than 6.5 million children in Syria need assistance… This is the highest figure recorded since the start of the conflict more than 11 years ago,” Adele Khodr clarified.
Al-Younani makeshift camp shelters nearly 270 displaced families all coming from areas under the control of the Syrian government forces in the southern countryside of Raqqa and the countryside of Homs and Hama governorates.
There are 58 makeshift camps in the countryside of Raqqa that shelter more than 90.000 IDPs, numbering 16.165 families, according to data from the Camps and IDPs Affairs Bureau of the Raqqa Civil Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
What saddens the mother’s heart is that her child does not understand, and his mind does not help him to refrain from doing something that his mother forbids.
Facing the harsh reality, al-Ahmad calls for support from humanitarian organizations to help her in treating her son, hoping that he will return to be a normal child one day.
“I work as a daily laborer. I have nothing to cover my son’s treatment expenses. Without help I can do nothing, what shall I do?”
“My son lives in a state of terror that dominates his memory, and the war left him scars that will accompany him throughout his life,” the mother concluded.