Caritas Syria staff and a beneficary in Homs. Credit: Caritas Syria
Syria is being destroyed, day by day, village by village. Raqqa, Idlib, Palmyra and Assyrian villages in Al-Khabour have fallen to Jihadist and fanatic groups. Now it is the turn of Quaryatayn.
The village is situated between Homs and Palmyra. Things became bad in May with the kidnapping and disappearance of Fr. Jacques Mourad, the Syrian-Catholic priest who was responsible for Mar Elian Convent in Quaryatayn.
After the kidnapping, many Christian families went to safer places. During the last two months, Caritas in Homs has helped 87 families coming from Quaryatayn with food baskets and hygienic kits.
Fr Iyad Ghanem, the coordinator of our office in Homs, is a friend of Fr. Jacques. He said, “On the day of his abduction, he sent in the morning a message to all his friends, in which he expressed his concerns about the advance of ISIS in the region and especially approaching his village Quaryatayn”
Those fears have played out when on 5 August ISIS attacked Quaryatayn and kidnapped many Christian and Muslim families.
Metropolitan Mar Selwanos Boutros Al-Ne’meh, the Syriac Orthodox bishop of Homs, has urged for people to speak out in hope of releasing these families. He says they’ve lost contact with 250 Christians people, most of them are kidnapped by ISIS. Others might have escaped but they haven’t heard anything about them till now.
Fr Iyad from Caritas Homs said that they received some good news today. ISIS forces allowed the kidnapped people to call their relatives to reassure them that they are still alive. He said: “This gave the families of Quaryatayn in Homs a little bit of hope and relief, and gave me personally some hope to hear something new about my dear friend Jacques.”
Caritas Syria’s President, Bishop Antoine Audo, spoke to Vatican Radio about the situation in Quaryatayn.