Mohamad Othman, 30, plays with his child at the archaeological site of Sarjableh in Idlib, Syria, which has become a home to more than 50 displaced families. All photos: Reuters
Mohamad Othman, 30, plays with his child at the archaeological site of Sarjableh in Idlib, Syria, which has become a home to more than 50 displaced families. All photos: Reuters
Mohamad Othman, 30, plays with his child at the archaeological site of Sarjableh in Idlib, Syria, which has become a home to more than 50 displaced families. All photos: Reuters
Mohamad Othman, 30, plays with his child at the archaeological site of Sarjableh in Idlib, Syria. All photos: Reuters
Mohamad Othman, 30, remembers going on school trips to ancient archaeological sites in Syria, never imagining one of them would become his home. Mr Othman and his family have been living in a tent amid ancient ruins at Sarjableh near the Turkish border since fleeing for their lives about two and a half years ago during a government offensive in northwestern Syria.
Othman stands next to his tent.
Rocks gathered from the site anchor down their tent, one of several dozen that are sheltering families who have fled their homes during the decade-long Syrian war. Their clothes hang to dry on two lines strung between the tent and an ancient stone portico. Their children clamber over the rocks and balance on walls in this unusual if dangerous playground. "In the summer, we face scorpions, snakes and dust, and all the pressures of life, and in winter the cold. The situation is desperate. There are no health services," Mr Othman said.
The site, an early Christian settlement with ruins dating to the fifth century, has been in demand with the displaced because they do not have to pay to stay there, unlike other areas where landowners charge rent. "Everyone here used to have land that we would farm and we had livelihoods in our villages and did not need anyone. But our fate was to be displaced," Mr Othman said. "We did not leave our land by our own free will to come to an area that has been uninhabited for thousands of years."
A woman collects olive twigs for firewood at the Unesco World Heritage Site of Babisqa, in the northern countryside of Idlib, Syria.
Not far from Sarjableh, in another corner of the northwestern province of Idlib, the ancient site of Babisqa is also providing shelter for those bombed out of their homes. In an earlier phase of the war, rebels used the site as a base, operating from ancients caves hewn from the rock where wiring installed by the opposition fighters can still be seen. Among the 80 or so families living at the site, it is known as 'Kharrab camp', or 'Ruins camp'.
Mahmoud Abu Khalifa, 35, stands inside an ancient cave he uses to store his belongings and raise his sheep, at Babisqa.
Mahmoud Abu Khalifa, 35, a father of seven, stores family possessions and animal feed in an ancient cave hewn out of the rock. He keeps his sheep in a pen amid the stones. "Before being displaced, we had agricultural land and farmed crops and lived from them and everything was great and we had these animals," he said.
Khalid Abu Khalifa, 9, holds a pair of pigeons while playing amid the ancient ruins of Babisqa.
Today "the children live in the ruins and mud," he said. "The situation is very desperate," he said. "Our one demand is to return to our villages."
Uefa Nations League: How it Works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
The UN General Assembly President in quotes:
YEMEN: “The developments we have seen are promising. We really hope that the parties are going to respect the agreed ceasefire. I think that the sense of really having the political will to have a peace process is vital. There is a little bit of hope and the role that the UN has played is very important.”
PALESTINE: “There is no easy fix. We need to find the political will and comply with the resolutions that we have agreed upon.”
OMAN: “It is a very important country in our system. They have a very important role to play in terms of the balance and peace process of that particular part of the world, in that their position is neutral. That is why it is very important to have a dialogue with the Omani authorities.”
REFORM OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL: “This is complicated and it requires time. It is dependent on the effort that members want to put into the process. It is a process that has been going on for 25 years. That process is slow but the issue is huge. I really hope we will see some progress during my tenure.”
