Little girl in Aleppo shelter, April 2015. Credit: OCHA/Josephine Guerrero
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, has lived through 3 years of war. Caritas staff sent us this report on the unfolding tragedy.
People in Syria’s largest city of Aleppo are living under siege as mortar shells continue to fall daily, killing at random.
There is no electricity most of the time unless it’s bought privately, excluding the city’s mostly impoverished population.
The water supply is often cut. Children stand outside mosques or churches for hours to fill up cans with undrinkable water from the wells dug during the crisis. The polluted river water is also used, leading to disease.
High prices for everyday goods means people can’t buy essentials like food, water, housing and medication. A lot of ill people have stopped taking their medicine to be able to buy some food instead. The majority sleep hungry every night and wake up hungry every day.
“Aleppo is living the war for 4 years, without water, without electricity, without heating in winter. The bombs are falling on innocent people all the time, buildings full with innocent people who were sleeping at night fell, and people died under the ruins,” report Caritas staff in Aleppo.
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Heavy bombing 11-12 April night in the Sulaymaniyah quarter caused huge destruction of buildings, apartments and shops. A lot of families have been forced move to other regions especially the Littoral which is still safe somehow.
One of the young women working in Caritas rental project escaped with her family from their house and settled in a safer area in Aleppo.
The glass of the apartment of another employee in the same project had totally broken because of a missile which fell nearby. Another employee in the medical project left Aleppo to another region because their house is located in a hot area and they couldn’t support living there anymore.
Caritas staff in Aleppo.
From the first day of emergency in Sulaymaniyah, Aleppo regional office held many meetings with different Christian rites and many official bodies to be able to estimate losses and needs.
Since this emergency begun, all Caritas centres in all projects have been on alert, especially to provide shelter, but also food, mattresses, blankets, school equipment, clothes and kitchen utensils.
“We are not asking anything from you, just to pray with us for Aleppo, whatever your religion, your country, your language, pray with us. In your temple, your work, your home, no matter where, remember these innocent people in your prayers,” said Caritas staff in Aleppo
“We cannot remain silent anymore, if I talk, if you do the same, we can change things.”