This image was was taken from a video posted by the Aleppo Media Centre after an airstrike in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The city has been at the centre of the Syrian civil war that has been going on since 2011, probably as long as Omar Daqneesh, has been alive. Aleppo based journalist Mustafa al-Sarout describes his meeting with the boy to The Guardian:
Omar was rescued with his three siblings, aged one, six, and 11, and his mother and father. None sustained major injuries, but their apartment building collapsed shortly after the family was rescued. His family was extremely fortunate in the circumstances, doctors at M10 – the hospital that he was brought to – said that eight people died in the airstrike, including five children.
I’ve seen so many children rescued out of the rubble, but this child, with his innocence, he had no clue what was going on."
“He arrived in total shock, total bewilderment at what happened,” he said. “His body was covered in dust in addition to blood on his face from a wound on his forehead, and the blood mixed with the dust."
"These are children bombed every day. It’s not an exceptional case,” he said. “This is a daily fact of Russian and Syrian government airstrikes. They take turns bombing civilians in Aleppo before the whole world. This child is a representative of millions of children in Syria and its cities.
Omar was rescued with his three siblings, aged one, six, and 11, and his mother and father. None sustained major injuries, but their apartment building collapsed shortly after the family was rescued. His family was extremely fortunate in the circumstances, doctors at M10 – the hospital that he was brought to – said that eight people died in the airstrike, including five children.
Statistic: Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 18 August 2016
This is the reality that some 1.5 million to 2.0 people who still call Aleppo home face every day and the choices for them are limited. This sentiment was captured by artist Albaih on Twitter:
#Khartoon - Choices #OmranDaqneesh 5 pulled from under the ruins, #AylanKurdi 3 drowned in the Mediterranean #Syria pic.twitter.com/Y4XQgfKgHt
— ALBAIH (@khalidalbaih) August 18, 2016
What will the world do in the light of this?
