Lost husband, house.. plight embodies life of IDP in camp in Syria’s Raqqa
Maryam al-Hamad and her child in Tel al-Samen camp – North Press
AIN ISSA, Syria (North Press) – Under her tent that is easily swayed by winds, Maryam spends her “depressing” life. Wherever she looks she finds nothing but tents.
It has been five years since Maryam al-Hamad, 36, started living this new style of life. “God praised,” she alleviates her plight.
Under the tent, the IDP that comes from the village of al-Ali Bajelya in the countryside of Tel Abyad, north Syria, Maryam narrates her tale that was woven in 2017, when her husband died in an IED explosion planted under his car’s seat.
She says her husband and his four children, the elder aged eight, were in the car when the IED blew up.
Up to now, she does not know who was behind such an act and for what a reason.
She has tried in vain to make her son tell what his father told him before passing away. The son remains affected by the accident. “He keeps weeping secretly,” the mother says.
However, Maryam managed to lead a new life in catering for her children and properties until armed factions of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) entered her village.
On October 9, 2019, Turkish armed forces and the SNA launched a ground operation against Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad which displaced more than 300.000 people from their homes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
At the time, Maryam was forced to leave her house and lands behind. She lives now in Tel al-Samen IDP camp. Recently, she has received information that armed factions had seized her house and lands. “They even took my crops.”
She contacted her relatives in the village to retrieve her house and farmlands but they rejected. “They cannot retrieve the land or even dare to ask about that.”
Following the Turkish invasion of northeast Syria the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) established the Tel al-Samen IDP camp to accommodate IDPs from the countryside of Tel Abyad and villages located on the contact lines between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish forces and the SNA.
Sadly and grievously she says, “I lost my husband, then I lost my house and all what I had. I and my kids under this tent that does not shield us from the summer’s heat nor the breeze of winter.”
Al-Hamad lives in dire humanitarian and economic situation amid lack of humanitarian aid. This is the case of 6.621 IDPs living under 1.261 tents in Tel al-Samen whose inhabitants are mostly women, elderly and children.
With the Turkish escalation against northeast Syria and the threats made by Ankara of a new military operation, Maryam is fearful of a new wave of displacement. She does not now where she could end up in such a case.
After five years of displacement, she has never adapted to the life in the camp. The family feels broken with the loss of the father. They subsist on monthly rendered aid that does not earn them a decent living.
Amid this status of the affair in an IDP camp, she says she is forced to continue living in the camp.
She has a dream that one day she could return home after the “Turkish occupiers” exit their lands even if that takes a long time. “I believe in God.”