Rescue workers in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province are working around-the-clock to rescue survivors of Monday's earthquake and are pleading for international help.
BEIRUT — For more than a decade, residents of an opposition-held enclave in northwestern Syria have endured bombardment, brutal fighting and a seemingly endless humanitarian crisis, haunted by the fear that no one cares. On Monday, after an earthquake destroyed their homes and flattened their neighborhoods, the sting of abandonment was almost too much to bear.
Of the 4.5 million people living in Idlib, nearly 2.9 million were displaced from elsewhere in Syria — and many have been displaced several times. Nearly 90 percent of residents require assistance and aid, according to the United Nations. When the quake struck at 3:30 a.m., electricity and internet went out, leaving people to scramble in the darkness to find their loved ones and escape. Zleito sent a message to his family telling them he was alive, but he had no time to wait for a reply, or to check on them — he had to get to work.He spent 35 hours digging through rocks, dirt and concrete in the cold and rain, he said, fixated on one task: locating the voices coming from the rubble.
His phone lit up with a flood of messages. “My kids were telling me, ‘We’re okay, Papa. Just tell us you’re okay.’ My wife was saying, ‘Just send us a message to tell us you’re okay.’” He reassured his family and went back to work. He spent a painstaking five hours trying to extract one woman, providing her with oxygen until she could be pulled from the ruins of her home. Most were not so lucky.
“Enormous” numbers of people were wandering the streets, she said, wounded or trying to reunite with loved ones. The storm made it worse, as pounding rain drowned out the voices of those calling for help.
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