Humanitarian crisis grows as conflict drags on in Syria

World Today

The ongoing conflict in Syria has taken a heavy toll on soldiers and civilians alike-leaving many people in dire straits.

CGTN’s Alaa Ebrahim reports.
Follow Alaa Ebrahim on Twitter @Alaa_Ebrahim_tv

In any suburb of Damascus, like in Jarmana, it wouldn’t be difficult to see the effects of the war, even if clashes didn’t take place. But the war hits everywhere. Like in the al-Halabi family house. The man of the house, Abu Khaled, was an officer in the Syrian army till 2012 when he encountered a rebel sniper on the outskirts of the capital — an encounter that left Abu Khaled paralyzed. Long after the battle that Abu Khaled fought ceased to make the news, his suffering continued.

Gassan is one of the nearly 800,000 Syria’s ministry of health said have permanent physical injuries because of the war. Behind each of these cases is a family struggling to survive. For Asma, a mother and wife, the war couldn’t have been crueler. While she was in hospital tending to her wounded husband, she got the news her youngest son Karam had died in a car bomb attack on the district where they live.

Mouna now has to perform physical therapy for her injured husband while keeping the household running. She and her husband hope he might be able to walk again someday. But in the meantime, Gassan watches the news every day following up on what his former comrades are doing. He says he is ecstatic about recent army gains in Aleppo.

But behind the headlines on Aleppo lies the stories of thousands of lives turned upside down by the war.

In the freezing cold of the night, Abu Saied and his daughter along with other displaced kids gather around the fire to warm up. A burning tire is the only heat they have now. After all, they just escaped death in the fierce battles of Aleppo.

What is left after losing everything you ever owned, your limbs or your loved ones? And what drive could someone still have after all of this, to go on living and fighting for a better future. All difficult questions that the majority of Syrians have to deal with nowadays.