Dilba, a 31-year-old Kurdish mother from the Syrian city of Kobani, shared her story with InfoMigrants aboard the Geo Barents rescue ship. She and her three children endured nine months of suffering in Libya and then nearly lost their lives at sea. They currently live in refugee accommodation in Germany, while Dilba’s husband remains in Syria, hoping to apply for family reunification.
I am from the city of Kobani, located on the Syrian-Turkish border… I was born in Damascus and lived my whole life there, but when the war began, I moved to Kobani. I got married there and have three children, two boys and a girl. We suffered in Kobani from the siege of ISIS, difficult war conditions and harsh living conditions … ISIS attacked Kobani.
I wanted to join the other women and fight against ISIS, but I had just given birth to my daughter and I also had my other children.
ISIS forced us to flee to Turkey. At that time, Turkey opened its borders. We remained there until Kobani was liberated… We returned to rebuild it and reconstruct it despite the poor living conditions, no electricity, no water, and the remnants of war and bombs everywhere. They destroyed the country, but we rebuilt it again.
But now Turkey has resumed bombing us, targeting residential areas, electricity, and gas facilities. We went for days, weeks, and months without electricity. We lost our basic livelihoods. Every month or every 20 days, Turkey would bomb us. They also targeted medical sites and hospitals…there were no doctors, nurses or ambulances… The Turkish occupation tried to destroy Kobani’s infrastructure. Half of Kobani’s residents were displaced by the Turkish occupation. You could not live safely. Every two or three days there was bombing and the sound of bombs and gunfire, in a place already with difficult living conditions.
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