Baby born and orphaned in Syria quake adopted by aunt, uncle

 

Baby girl reunited with her paternal aunt Hala and uncle-by-marriage Khalil Al Sawadi is named Afraa, after her mother, who died along with her husband and other children in opposition-run town of Jandaris in Syria's Aleppo province.

  

Hala, the paternal aunt of a baby girl who was born during a deadly earthquake earlier this month, is reunited with her, in the town of Jandaris , Syria. (Reuters)

An infant child born in northern Syria during this month's devastating earthquakes has been reunited with her aunt and uncle, after her parents and siblings died in the disaster.

Footage circulating widely on social media after the quake showed a rescuer scrambling down a hill of rubble carrying a tiny dust-covered baby.

The newborn was later identified as the child of Abdallah and Afraa Mleihan, who died in the earthquakes along with their other children in the opposition-run town of Jandaris in Syria's Aleppo province.

The infant was treated in the Jihan Hospital further west in the Afrin district, also opposition-run, until medics could verify the identities of her relatives.

On Saturday, her paternal aunt Hala and uncle by marriage Khalil Al Sawadi finally picked up their niece — whom they named Afraa, after her deceased mother.

"This girl means so much to us because there's no-one left of her family besides this baby. She'll be a memory for me, for her aunt and for all of our relatives in the village of her mother and father," Sawadi told the Reuters news agency.

He was carrying Afraa, wrapped in a pink blanket, in one arm and his own newborn daughter Ataa, wrapped in blue, in the other. Ataa was born three days after the earthquake and Sawadi said he would raise them together.

"There were legal procedures to confirm the genetic relation, as well as a DNA test," he told Reuters.

 Khalil Al Sawadi, the uncle-by-marriage of a baby girl born during a deadly earthquake earlier this month, holds Afraa and his own newborn daughter, in Jandaris, Syria. (Reuters)

Thousands dead in Syria

More than 5,800 people have died across Syria as a result of the February 6 earthquakes, the bulk in the opposition-run north which had already suffered years of bombardment since conflict broke out in Syria in 2011.

The quake also left more than 40,000 dead in Türkiye.

Jandaris, where Sawadi lives, is one of the hardest-hit towns in the opposition-held parts of the north. 

Other children have been left orphaned there by the quake, after surviving years 

 of bombardment in the nearly 12-year war ravaging Syria.

Regime-controlled cities have also been severely damaged. 

Rescuers pull newborn baby alive from rubble in northern Syria, after finding her still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother, who died in massive quakes that hit Türkiye and Syria; infant is sole survivor of her immediate family https://t.co/SmlJeFRVmG pic.twitter.com/ygRjAB4wkf

— TRT World (@trtworld) February 8, 2023

Source: Reuters 

 

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(With input from news agency language)

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