Forsaken Aleppo
Arab League votes to readmit Syria
The February 2023 earthquake decimated Aleppo, a city reeling from 11 years of war. The Syrian population, of which 95% live below the poverty line, is traumatized. Despite this, there is a huge discrepancy between the aid received by Syria and that received by neighbouring Turkey.
Since the earthquake, Ahmad and his grandmother prefer to live in a tent outside their shell of a house, because they live in fear of being buried by rubble. "This earthquake was worse than the war" he says. Whereas Turkey received an outpouring of aid, the West donated almost no aid to Syria for fear of appearing to appease Bashar al-Assad. Syrian allies Russia and Iran have been slow to give aid due to lack of resources. These geopolitical manoueuvres come at a cost: "there is no reconstruction and in the middle of these ruins live the people, the Syrians", says Vincent, a French humanitarian worker. Local community leaders are distributing aid irrespective of ethnicity or religion. "A Syrian victim is the same as a Turkish victim" says Brother Georges, a local Christian leader.
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