One year later, the Syrian earthquake haunts their orphaned siblings Global development

Fear of another earthquake grips millions in Syria's last rebel-held province, even the lucky few who have been able to find new homes after their homes were destroyed. Many began setting up tents as the anniversary approached, fearing having to flee their homes again.

When the earthquakes struck in the early hours of February 6 last year, people in Idlib said they thought the ground shaking violently meant air strikes ordered by the government in Damascus. Now, the sound of air strikes makes them fear another earthquake.

The tremors, whether from an aftershock or an airstrike, are enough to send six-year-old Janan running in fear to the tent where she now lives alongside her younger brother Abdullah, their grandparents and 18 other orphans. The earthquakes changed the lives of Janan and Abdullah, and their frightened faces, trapped between layers of rubble, became a symbol of Idlib's suffering as footage of their ordeal was widely circulated.

“We can handle the bombings, but not another earthquake,” said their uncle, Omar Rahal, who filmed the video, offering a bit of gallows humor. “This is our reality.”

The reconstruction process has been slow in the enclave, where Rahal and others complain that the world has forgotten them. As Idlib residents tried to recover from deadly earthquakes that killed an estimated 8,000 people across Syria, more than half of them in the northwest, Bashar al-Assad's regime in Damascus escalated its deadly bombing campaign in the enclave.

A particularly fierce strike campaign in early September killed 45 people in Idlib and destroyed multiple parts of civilian infrastructure, adding to the devastation caused by the earthquakes and damaging thousands of schools, medical centers and homes.

The United Nations said late last year that violence in northwestern Syria had returned to levels not seen in four years. Some 3.4 million people have now been internally displaced after fleeing fighting, some for the second or even third time due to earthquakes; 43,000 people were forced to flee due to the earthquakes and have not yet returned to their homes.

“Many families came here thinking it was safer, but after losing their home here, they decided to return to their villages, because they simply had nowhere else to go,” said Dalal Al-Bish, who runs the Zumuruda Center for Women in the city of Zumuruda. The city of Salqin in the Idlib countryside. The town received many people fleeing the bombing before it was severely damaged by the earthquakes.

“They have returned to their old homes and are risking their lives to live near the front lines,” she said. “A few of them who had land planted with olive trees decided to deal with the risk of being near the front lines, so they could at least have an income. If you go to the camps, there is not much to do there, and people have very few options.” In this case.

Omar Rahal with Jinan in Idlib Hospital, Syria. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

Janan and Abdullah are trying to recover from their injuries sustained when their family home crushed them, while living in a tent. Rahal is haunted by the experience of rushing to his cousin Mahmoud's house in the town of Al-Haram in Idlib after the earthquakes, only to hear Jinan's voice calling him from under the rubble and begging him to save her and her brother. He could hear their mother, Sarah, pleading with him to save her children before she was crushed to death by the layer of concrete that was the roof of their house.

Rahal made his way through the rubble to talk to Janan and Abdullah, promising to either get them out or die trying. He recorded a video of the trapped children for his colleagues in the local police force, to help them figure out how to get the right equipment, but it quickly reached millions of viewers online.

He was eventually able to extract the two children from under the rubble of their home, with their mother’s arm extended towards them. Jinan's leg was impaled on a piece of metal, leaving her with profound nerve damage that required seven surgeries and a course of physical therapy. Rahal had to struggle to find doctors willing to give up amputating her leg.

He said her recovery became slower and more difficult in the tent; They face extreme heat during the summer and cold rains in the winter. Jinan started school last September, limping to class with the other children.

Abdullah suffered burns caused by battery acid, leaving deep wounds that still require surgery on his feet. He's not even two yet, and he's still trying to understand what he's lost.

“He is young, but you can see that when he looks at the burns and scars on his leg, it symbolizes that he lost most of his family overnight,” Rahal said. “He had a mother, father and five other sisters just one day ago. In one night they lost everything.”

Maram camp for displaced people in Idlib Governorate, northwestern Syria, in March of last year. Photography: Omar Haj Qaddour/AFP/Getty

Reconstruction efforts in Idlib are also deeply intertwined with diplomatic struggles over the only crossing into the region, with the United Nations now relying on Damascus's clearance to bring in vital aid. The United Nations also warned that the decrease in donations could jeopardize its ability to provide services in Idlib; Its funding for northwestern Syria amounts to a third of the targeted amount.

Then there are rising prices even for basic commodities. Rahal pointed to food baskets containing items such as sugar and bread, which were included in aid packages, as “we used to get enough for the whole house, but it decreased by half.”

Others working in aid in the northwest said local authorities, linked to the conservative group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, an offshoot of the jihadist Nusra Front, closely monitor humanitarian organizations working in Idlib, implicitly warning against them working on any cases that might challenge their authority.

Rahal reflected on his extended family's feelings as the anniversary of the earthquake approached, recalling how Jinan began crying when she saw videos of her deceased sister and mother that her grandmother had recently played on her phone.

“We are all fully aware of what we went through and what happened, and the huge impact it had on our lives,” he said. “I hope the kids forget that over time.”

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