Sat, Feb 29, 2020 page14

• Displaced families flee Syrian offensive 敘利亞內戰延燒 家庭流離失所

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  Beyond rolling hills in the village of Taltuna, Shamseddeen Darra, his three brothers, their wives and more than a dozen children share a small room in the belly of the earth, a gloomy underground shelter he and his family now call home. “We’re living here for lack of a better option,” says 35-year-old Darra, who calls their makeshift shelter “the cave.”

  After fleeing a deadly offensive by Syrian government forces on their home region of Idlib, they found nowhere else to go. The region is run by jihadists and allied rebel groups, and is home to around three million civilians.

  The violence has forced 900,000 of them to flee their homes or shelters, more than half of them children. Of those displaced since December, about 170,000 live out in the open or in unfinished buildings, the UN says. But in the town of Sarmada further north, Yusra Harsuni said she and her family had reached new lows.

  

  A Syrian boy sits by a tombstone at a cemetery where displaced families took refuge in its prayer hall, in the town of Sarmada in Syria’s Idlib Province, on Sunday. 在敘利亞伊德利布省的薩瑪達鎮，男孩坐在一塊墓碑旁，這處墓園的禱告廳是流離失所的家庭們避難的地方，照片攝於週日。

  Photo: AFP
  照片：法新社

  She, her daughter-in-law and grandchildren were now among 60 families living in the hall of the local cemetery. When the rain stops during the daytime, men and women emerge to stroll between the graves. They and their children sit on the grass, breathing in fresh air beyond the white marble tombstones.

  One night a small boy started screaming and people thought he was possessed. “The sheikh had to come twice and recite the Quran” to rid the place of any spirits, she said. But the grandmother says she has now resigned herself to living among the dead. “Of course, here in the middle of tombs, people are scared of death,” she said. “But it’s the lesser of two evils.”

  (AFP)

  

  A Turkish military vehicle drives through the village of Qah in Syria’s Idlib Province heading toward the western countryside of Aleppo Province on Feb. 19. 一台土耳其軍用車輛行經敘利亞伊德利布省的卡阿村，開向阿勒坡省西部的鄉間地帶，攝於二月十九日。

  Photo: AFP
  照片：法新社

  在塔爾圖納村連綿起伏的山丘遠方，夏姆瑟丹‧達拉、他的三名兄弟、他們的妻子，還有十幾個孩子，窘迫地擠在地底深處一個狹小的空間裡。這個陰暗的地下避難所現在是達拉一家人的家。三十五歲的達拉稱這個臨時避難所為「洞窟」，他說：「我們沒有更好的選擇，所以才住在這裡。」

  達拉一家人為了躲避敘利亞政府軍方的致命入侵，逃離家鄉伊德利布省，卻發現他們已無處可去。該省目前是聖戰士和結盟的叛軍組織把持的地區，也是大約三百萬名平民的家鄉。

  戰爭暴力已經迫使其中的九十萬人逃離家鄉或避難所，超過一半的人都還是兒童。聯合國表示，自去年十二月以來新增流離失所的民眾，其中大約有十七萬人在野外餐風露宿，或住在仍未完成的建築中。在更北邊的薩瑪達鎮，尤蘇拉‧哈素妮表示，她們一家人的處境已經跌至谷底。

  

  Members of a family of internally displaced Syrians sit together in an underground shelter where several families from Aleppo and Idlib provinces are taking refuge, in the village of Taltunah northwest of Idlib in the northwestern Idlib Province of Syria, on Sunday. 在敘利亞西北方的伊德利布省、位於該省首府伊德利布市西北方的塔爾圖納村，因國內戰亂流離失所的一個敘利亞家庭坐在地下避難所中，來自阿勒坡省和伊德利布省的其他家庭也在此避難，照片攝於週日。

  Photo: AFP
  照片：法新社

  哈素妮和她的媳婦與孫子，現在跟其他六十個家庭住在當地公墓的大廳裡。當白天雨停的時候，男男女女就會冒出來，在墳墓間散步。他們和子女們坐在草地上，在白色大理石墓碑旁邊呼吸新鮮空氣。

  有一天晚上，有一個小男孩突然開始尖叫，其他人以為他著魔了。哈素妮說：「謝赫（伊斯蘭教教長或是部落長老的尊稱）不得不兩次前來這裡誦讀《古蘭經》」，以驅除當地的惡靈。這位祖母也說，她已經被迫接受和死者相伴的生活了。「當然，在圍繞著墳墓的這裡，人們會害怕死亡。」她說，「但我們也只能兩害相權取其輕。」

  （台北時報章厚明譯）

  

  Turkey-backed Syrian fighters load their weapons at a position on the outskirts of the villages of Afis and Salihiyah situated near the regime-controlled town Saraqib, east of the Idlib Province in Syria, on Wednesday. 週三，位於政府軍掌控的薩拉奎布城附近、阿菲斯村和薩利希亞村的外圍，土耳其支持的敘利亞士兵們為武器補充彈藥。

  Photo: AFP
  照片：法新社
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