Sitting by a bed strewn with rubble in Syria’s second biggest city, Umm Mounir refuses to leave her home even though the deadly earthquake has torn a gaping hole into the room.
Aleppo, once a major commercial hub, had already been battered by over a decade of war when the 7.8-magnitude quake struck in early February, killing more than 45,000 people across Turkey and Syria and flattening entire neighbourhoods.
The building adjacent to Umm Mounir’s collapsed, ripping the rear facade off her own home, but she told AFP that neither natural disasters nor conflict can make her leave.
“Nothing will make me move out of my house except death,” said the 55-year-old, who lives by herself on the fourth floor of the heavily damaged seven-storey building.
“I will only leave for the grave.”
Her city suffered great losses in the February 6 quake that flattened 54 of its buildings and damaged historic sites.
With at least 432 fatalities, Aleppo accounts for nearly a third of all deaths in government-held parts of Syria, according to state media.
Officials and medics across the war-ravaged country, including in rebel-controlled areas, put the overall Syrian death toll at more than 3,600 people.
‘Used to danger’
The city witnessed brutal battles between rebels based in eastern Aleppo and Russian-backed regime forces from 2012 to 2016.
After a suffocating siege on rebel-held areas and a crushing offensive involving barrel bombs, rockets and shells, the army declared in December 2016 that it was in full control of the city.
“We are people of glory and wealth, but the war changed everything,” said Umm Mounir, glancing at the wreckage of her wooden furniture.
“Even in the harshest years of the war we were not displaced,” added the woman, whose home in the Masharika neighbourhood was near the frontline. “We will not be displaced now.”
More than 30 people died in Masharika after the pre-dawn quake brought down two building over sleeping residents.
