‘Even in death my husband never let go’

Deir Ballut – Widowed and homeless, Duaa Ghadban lost everything in a powerful earthquake, forcing her to take shelter in a camp for people displaced by war in Syria’s northwest.

The 7.8-magnitude quake early on Monday has killed more than 19 000 people in Türkiye and Syria and flattened entire blocks over residents in their sleep.

Syrians displaced by the country’s 12-year war, living in tents along the Turkish border, were largely spared the damage.

Ghadban, 21, was pulled out of the wreckage hours after the quake and now lives in a relative’s shoddy shelter in the northwestern Deir Ballut camp.

The dazed mother stared at a photo of one of her deceased children on her phone, weeping as she kissed the screen.

She saw her husband’s dead body trapped under concrete slabs, as he was embracing one of her three children – all of whom are now dead, she said.

“They buried them together. My husband never let him go,” Ghadban said, barefoot in the winter cold, her voice breaking as she recalled the tragedy that killed her 40-day-old toddler.

“I still can’t believe I made it out, I feel like I’m still stuck under the rubble,” Ghadban said, sitting on a plastic chair in a small concrete room with tarp overhead.

This is her home now, crammed into one room with her mother, sister, brother and their families.

“We have nothing left,” she said.

Many survivors like Ghadban flocked to camps including Deir Ballut, either because they had nowhere to sleep, or because they feared aftershocks would level their damaged homes.

Displaced camp dweller Fida Mohammed told AFP the residents there “thanked God for their tents after they saw what happened”.

After disaster struck, Ghayath Zarzour moved to the camp to live with his two displaced cousins and their families.

“We are 30 people in this small room, without heating or blankets,” he said, his head wrapped in a white gauze and eyes swollen shut.

Already displaced from Damascus by war, Zarzour now lost his second home in the northern town of Jandairis.

“We have been displaced time and time again,” he said, huddled under a blanket with his children.

“Today, history repeats itself.”