Life of female IDP in Syria’s Raqqa paved with Scars of War
IDP Saada al-Uqla inside her tent in a camp in Raqqa, northern Syria – North Press
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – For Saada, the way to safety was paved with loss and disappointment. During her attempt to escape the horrors of war, she lost three children. Later on, her husband abandoned the family.
Saada al-Uqla, 46, an IDP at al-Yunani camp, a kilometer south of Raqqa, in north Syria, tells the story of how she and her family were displaced from the city of Resafa, 30 km south of Raqqa, five years ago. At the time, the region was the site of the Syrian government’s battle against Islamic State (ISIS) self-styled caliphate.
They escaped the fighting to villages further north one evening. By nightfall, they arrived at al-Rashid farm in north of Raqqa.
She recalls, “My children and I walked” in extreme darkness to escape to a place that might shelter them from bullets and shelling.
She walked ahead of her children, unsure about where the road they had taken would lead them.
Al-Uqla could not hold her tears back when describing what happened next. A landmine, which had been hidden by the roadside, went off and instantly killed three of her children, wounding the other three.
She could not do anything to stop their death.
She told North Press the oldest was 15 and the youngest was 2, “I was carrying him on my back.”
The explosion also wounded al-Uqla. Shrapnel fractured her hands and leg, and imbedded in her body. The scars are visible on her face to this day.
She is grateful that her remaining three children are alive and were only slightly injured.
The family reached safety at night, but the mother’s anguish was far from over. Not long after, she and her children were abandoned by her husband for another woman. At al-Yunani, where internally displaced people (IDPs) face dire living conditions, this left the family destitute.
She complains about her situation in the camp, especially after her husband remarried, as she has no breadwinner to depend on. “We live off the charity of good people,” she noted.
The family is suffering. The mother is unable to work or even help her children do chores in their tent.
She expresses her desire to cook for her children and work, “but I cannot, I still have pieces of shrapnel in my leg and cannot get them out,” she laments.
The al-Yunani camp houses 1.120 women and 9 people with disabilities. Most of the IDPs in the camp came from government-held areas, according to a census conducted by Raqqa’s Civil Council, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
Al-Uqla and other IDPs suffer alone, as NGOs do not support the makeshift camp residents.
Facing a harsh winter, most IDPs complain of the shortage of heating oil and other heating supplies, as well as the lack of tents and blankets.