By Jean Baptiste Ndabananiye
Conflicts in Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ukraine, and Gaza are among the most severe and ongoing wars in the world today. Each of these conflicts bears significant humanitarian consequences and involves various complexities. So, Life In Humanity has felt compelled to produce a piece of stories depicting the tragedy of victims of the wars in those countries. Stories portraying the tragedy of war victims play a crucial role in bringing attention to the human side of conflict, fostering understanding, and driving efforts to address and prevent such suffering. Life In Humanity is convinced that producing these stories is crucial for amplifying the voices of victims and advocating not only for an end to their suffering but also for preventive measures to avoid future tragedies.
The war in the DRC has been ongoing for decades, involving multiple armed groups and contributing to a severe humanitarian crisis, including displacement, violence, and poverty. The war in Ukraine, particularly since the Russian invasion in February 2022, has caused substantial casualties and destruction, attracting significant international attention and involvement. The war in Yemen, ongoing since 2015 though it has reduced the intensity, has begotten a severe humanitarian crisis including widespread famine and disease. It involves various factions and has engendered devastating effects on civilians. The conflict in Gaza, between Israel and Hamas, has resulted in repeated outbreaks of violence, significant civilian casualties, and ongoing humanitarian issues. The stories are really harrowing. But, some of them are extremely heart-breaking that we were on the point of exploding with tears, especially regarding the stories highlighting the unspeakably horrifying situation in Gaza, with thousands of orphaned children.
Gaza
Tehran Times is an English-language newspaper based in Iran, founded in 1979 and state-affiliated. It released a story headlined “Gaza through individual stories” on 17 March 2024, beginning the story with the words “Gaza is filled with heartbreaking and harrowing stories. But among them, there are some accounts that will forever be etched into the painful annals of Gaza’s suffering.” Life In Humanity has picked some of the accounts, the first one being that of the toddler, depicted in the featured image, who “lost everything but has to move on.”
Tehran Times says that the toddler, Hoor, drew the attention of a journalist in Gaza as she was sitting on a hospital bed at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital alone, “with her innocent eyes scanning unfamiliar faces around her. Hoor’s world was shattered when an Israeli bomb struck her family’s home in Deir el-Balah on January 27. Tragically, she was the sole survivor pulled from the rubble that once sheltered her beloved father, mother, and three brothers.
The horrors inflicted upon Hoor extend beyond the emotional scars she carries. The physical toll is also starkly evident—her left hand has been amputated entirely, and the fingers on her right hand have been taken by the merciless aftermath of the war. Wounds mar her head and legs, bearing witness to the brutality she has had to endure at such a tender age. Hoor, however, does not have the luxury to adopt [adapt] to her new situation. Death is following her everywhere and her only remaining family member, her aunt, needs to make sure that Hoor’s fate will somehow be different.”
Entire families being exterminated in Gaza: the case of Tatatbi family
Tehran Times points out that several families in Gaza will leave the face of the earth forever. “The heart-wrenching landscape of the besieged Gaza Strip, the echoes of loss and devastation resonate through the stories of countless Palestinian families.
Among those shattered by the Israeli airstrikes, the Tatatbi family stands as a stark example of the unfathomable tragedy that has befallen generations of Palestinians in this embattled region. At least 36 souls belonging to the Tatatbi family were ripped from this world in an instant. Entire generations continue to be snuffed out in a flash, leaving behind a void that can never be filled, a gaping wound in the fabric of existence.”
An unanswered cry for help
“Perhaps among the chaos and devastation that continues to engulf Gaza, what happened to a Palestinian girl named Hind remains as the most haunting incident in the minds of people watching Gaza from afar.”
This Iranian media house says that the five-year-old Hind found herself in a nightmarish scenario whereby she got caught inside a car with the lifeless bodies of her family members as her only companions. “Alone, frightened, and surrounded by the unbearable silence of death, Hind summoned her courage and reached out to the Palestinian Red Crescent, her small voice trembling with fear but resolute in its plea for salvation. In a heart-wrenching recording of her call for aid, Hind’s desperate words echoed through the chaos, ‘Please come and take me. I’m so scared, please come!’
Her mother, Wissam Hamada, had told her friends that Hind harbored aspirations of becoming a doctor. That dream will never become reality, as Hind’s lifeless body was eventually found inside the car she had called for help in. An ambulance tried to reach the 5-year-old after her call for help but got struck by Israeli fire on its way to rescue the innocent soul.”
Tens of thousands of children in Gaza are now orphans
Tehran Times reports that a harrowing reality has occurred in the lives of thousands of Palestinian children, leaving them orphaned and adrift in a world devastated by Israeli bombardments and an unrelenting siege. “Among these innocent souls stands Julia, a mere four years old, whose story paints a poignant picture of tragedy and survival amidst the chaos of Deir Al-Balah. In the fabric of despair that envelops her young life, Julia finds herself orphaned by the ruthless hands of Israeli forces that snatched away the lives of her parents.
A cruel twist of fate mirrors the past tragedy of her father, Musab, who, in 2004, suffered a similar fate when Israeli forces took the life of his own father. Wessam Nassar, Julia’s cousin, bears witness to the anguish that engulfs their family, recounting the devastating loss that has befallen them.”
Nassar told Tehran Times “Musab was left orphaned when Israel’s forces claimed his father in 2004. Now, Musab has departed from this world, leaving behind his precious daughter, Julia, aged four. His love for her endures, his spirit forever intertwined with hers.”
Tehran Times adds that Julia, oblivious to the harsh realities that have killed her family, grapples with the absence that now defines her existence. “My mom got bombed,” she innocently murmurs, her innocent words painting a stark contrast to the profound sorrow that shadows her young life, according to the media house.
Gazans killed while trying to get food for hungry children
“In the besieged enclave of Gaza, death lurks in every shadow, waiting for Gazan residents at every turn. The month of February [2024] brought a devastating blow as over 100 Palestinians lost their lives and 700 more were wounded in a heart-wrenching tragedy. ”
“At al-Rashid Street, a gathering place for those awaiting aid trucks carrying flour, chaos reigned. Witnesses spoke of the horror as the Israeli military opened deadly fire on the crowd. In the absence of ambulances, volunteers scrambled to carry the wounded and fallen to safety.”
Tehran Times additionally says that Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the scene described the grim aftermath as exacerbating the tragedy, with Israeli tanks rolling over bodies. “The roads were impassable, medical centers were overwhelmed with the influx of casualties. The echoes of gunfire and cries for help reverberated through Gaza while death lingered in the air as a cruel companion in people’s daily struggle for survival.”
Yemen
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) collected data out of which it processed its 24 March 2023 article entitled “Eight Stories from Yemen.” Its introduction reads “For displaced people in Yemen, memories of their original homes are deeply ingrained in their minds. Many gather in camps to discuss fond moments and share their hope of one day returning to a sense of normality.
After all, there’s no place like home. We talked to eight displaced families in Yemen who give eight different reasons for not returning home after eight years of conflict.” Life In Humanity has selected some of the stories are the following ones.
Protecting her son: Suad Qaed’s nightmare
Qaed was thrust into her worst nightmare when armed men conducted a raid at her home, attempting to abduct her 14-year-old son to take him to the frontline. NRC points out that she was suffering from trauma till that day. “Two years ago, armed men tried to kidnap my son. I ran after them and held him by his arm. They tried to convince me that he would become a hero fighting, but I refused to let him go.
I told them they either take both of us together, or nobody. Those armed men continued their attacks on us, slaughtering my livestock and threatening to take my son, so I decided to flee my village and come here for the sake of my son’s safety. Nothing in this life will ever replace my son if I had to lose him. Sometimes I wake up at midnight looking for him. I can’t return to my village because I feel they will kidnap my son at anytime.”
Anwer Ahmed in his 40s totally impoverished by the war
Ahmed, a farmer who relied on his farm, livestock, and selling honey to maintain his eleven family members, lost everything when they fled. “Three years ago, we were besieged in our home for seven days and finally we managed to flee walking on foot, leaving everything behind us. I built my source of income step by step by having sufficient livestock and beehives, but I lost all that in a moment.
I hope to return home today, but it is difficult to start again. I’m lost and I don’t have money to build a source of income. Even my home is empty. Here (in a displacement camp) we receive some assistance, but at home, nothing.”
Deadly landmines: Qaboola Saif’s dilemma
Saif wished to return to her destroyed home even if she could find no basic services, but landmines had prevented her. “We tried to return to our village, but we found it full of landmines. I hoped to return to my home even if we had to live under a plastic sheet, but it isn’t safe as landmines kill anyone who steps on them, be it humans or livestock.
I know two neighbours who returned home and were killed by landmines. We don’t want to meet the same fate. Landmines aren’t only on the way to the village but also inside homes.”
Thakeer Al-Sabout, in his 30s
A father of five children who lived with his family in one tent in a displacement camp said that their home had been flattened by the fighting. “I returned to my village, but I found my home completely destroyed. It is impossible to rebuild it as I don’t have money or anyone to support me with that.
I could hardly pay for transport to return for one day to check the situation in my village. I hope to return one day because nothing makes you feel safer and happier than being home, but I have no way to do this on my own.”
DRC
In this country, Life In Humanity has chosen one of stories published by Population Connection Action Fund (PCAF). PCAF, supporting the mission of Population Connection which forms an American non-profit organization, says that it has collected the stories in partnership with activist Lisa Shannon, founder of Every Woman Treaty. It has employed pseudonyms as requested by the storytellers, to protect their identities. Meanwhile, Life In Humanity has not managed to determine the date on which these stories were released.
Furaha-content warning: unsafe abortion
After Furaha’s mother died in the war, she remained close to cousins and neighbors for her regular chores. One day, she and four of her cousins and neighbors walked to a river to fetch water. A militia then kidnapped them. For months, Furaha and her cousins were kept as sex slaves in a forest. Finally, when another militia assailed, they succeeded in escaping from their captors amid the chaos. By that time, Furaha was already impregnated.
“With no possessions or money, at 28 weeks pregnant and hoping to find help, Furaha walked south for five days. She reached Goma and went into labor. Women from a church took her to Heal Africa. Furaha gave birth to a premature baby boy. She didn’t want to keep him—he was a reminder of the torture she endured in the forest. She was only 15 and had no skills or anywhere to go after she was released from the hospital. The baby was also severely disabled, due to the premature birth.
One of the nurses brought Furaha and the baby home. Others sent money for her to attend sewing classes to make a living. But her son is severely developmentally delayed and will likely never walk. And in Congo, there are no services or support for disabled children. So she couldn’t take the sewing classes, even with the financial help. As is common with girl survivors of rape, with little hope of a future, Furaha began acting out. She began engaging in highly risky sexual behavior. Within a year, she was pregnant again.” Though this story says that in the DRC exist no services or support for children with disability, there are organizations which support these children. It could be due to time when the stories were produced, since we have already highlighted that we have not been able to know it.
Ukraine
The Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) is an American non-profit organization established in 2003 by Marla Ruzicka, as the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict. This center published “Voices from Ukraine: Stories of Resilience Amidst Conflict” on a date not specified either. “We just really wanted to survive”: the story of a man who was kept in a basement for a month alongside 367 other civilians without food and lack of fresh air. Those are words which introduce the man whom CIVIC identifies as Ivan. The following is the whole story.
“Ivan’s entire life is connected with his native village of Yahidne in Chernihiv Oblast. For many years, he worked as a school administrator at the only school in the village and spent a lot of his time there. At the beginning of the Russian invasion and occupation of Chernihiv region, the basement of this school turned into a trap for 367 villagers, including Ivan and his family,” says CIVIC.
It adds that despite his captivity and the “absolutely inhumane conditions of detention”, the man still lives in his native village and continues to guard the school that “has become an epicenter for harm to civilians.”
“I remember the day they broke into the basement of our house where we were hiding. They threatened us with guns, ordered us to take off our clothes, and hand over our phones. They called my son’s roommate outside. We heard only gunshots and thought she was gone. But – it turned out – that they took the phone, made her kneel, and shot the gadget for show,” Ivan said.
CIVIC further states that a few days later, the entire frightened family was taken to the basement, of the school, where more than 300 other civilians were already being detained. “The basement consisted of several rooms. Ivan was kept in the largest room, with people literally huddled together. For 26 days, the man had his own place – a small chair on which he also slept. His legs were swollen and covered with wounds from the terrible conditions in the basement. They were hardly given any food. Half of a small plastic cup of soup was the maximum, and not every day. They spared no children, no old women, and the sick”.
“We literally had nothing to breathe. Children sat in one corner, in another corner there were buckets that were used as a toilet, in another corner we stacked the bodies of those who could not withstand these conditions and died. Their names were scratched on the walls so that they would be remembered” said Ivan.
The center says that civilians asked for permission to remove and bury the dead bodies. “But this was allowed to be done only after three or four corpses were gathered. People almost immediately started keeping a wall calendar to keep track of time. The days in captivity were crossed out, and the date of liberation was marked with a drawing of the sun”. “Many of us went outside for the first time in a month. Our eyes were stinging, but we were happy to have survived,” Ivan said.
Ivan highlights that after the liberation, numerous civilians immediately left the village. He said “Evacuation buses came. People didn’t even ask where they were going, they just quickly put their children on, boarded themselves, and left without even their belongings. They were afraid to stay. There was nowhere to live, clothes and appliances were stolen, and windows were smashed.
At that time, about 15 percent of the villagers remained in the village. But I had no thoughts of running away. My wife, son, and I stayed behind. And although there were no windows in our house for two months, we lived like that because it was our home.”
Conclusion
The intensely tragic stories emerging from Gaza, Yemen, Ukraine, and the DRC starkly illustrate the immense human suffering wrought by ongoing conflicts and humanitarian crises. The heartbreaking experiences of children like Hoor and Hind, and the profound loss endured by families such as the Tatatbi family, underscore the urgent need for a concerted global response.
These narratives, brought to light by sources like Tehran Times and various humanitarian reports, reveal the relentless violence and suffering faced by countless individuals. Yet, beyond simply understanding these stories, we must recognize our collective responsibility to act. The international community must respond with empathy and tangible support, helping to address both immediate needs and the root causes of these conflicts.
By amplifying these voices and advocating for effective solutions, we can contribute to alleviating suffering and fostering peace. It is through a combination of heightened awareness and proactive engagement that we can hope to bring about meaningful change. Let us not merely witness these tragedies but commit ourselves to actions that can help end them, ensuring that the stories of survival and resilience lead to a more compassionate and just world.
The war is the politics act which impacts civilian people in general.