Sandwiched between Wars, a Syrian-Ukrainian Faces Uncertain Future

Victoria Naji, who was born in Syria to a Palestinian father and a Ukrainian mother poses for a picture with her mother, Irina Naji at their home in Damascus, Syria and March 12, 2022. (Reuters)
Victoria Naji, who was born in Syria to a Palestinian father and a Ukrainian mother poses for a picture with her mother, Irina Naji at their home in Damascus, Syria and March 12, 2022. (Reuters)
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Sandwiched between Wars, a Syrian-Ukrainian Faces Uncertain Future

Victoria Naji, who was born in Syria to a Palestinian father and a Ukrainian mother poses for a picture with her mother, Irina Naji at their home in Damascus, Syria and March 12, 2022. (Reuters)
Victoria Naji, who was born in Syria to a Palestinian father and a Ukrainian mother poses for a picture with her mother, Irina Naji at their home in Damascus, Syria and March 12, 2022. (Reuters)

Born in Syria to a Palestinian father and a Ukrainian mother, Victoria Naji has spent her life in the shadow of conflict.

Aged 24 and resident in Damascus, Naji came of age during the Syrian war that marks its 11th anniversary on Tuesday having destroyed much of the country.

Recently graduated in fine arts from Damascus University, she had been planning to travel to Ukraine to seek out opportunities in her mother's homeland - until war erupted there last month.

"I said to myself 'I can move to Ukraine in the future'. Now the future is very confused," said Naji, who is Palestinian, Ukrainian and Syrian. "I see war everywhere. There is no safe place for me."

The war in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced more than half the population from their homes since spiraling out of protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March, 2011. Russia joined the war in 2015, deploying its air force to Syria in support of Assad.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, has sent more than 2.8 million people fleeing across Ukraine's borders and trapped hundreds of thousands in besieged cities. Russia calls its actions a "special military operation" to "denazify" the country.

Naji says her friends and family had been forced to flee Kyiv to safer areas. "God willing nothing more than this happens to Ukraine," she said, as she reflected on happy memories of visits to the country.

Naji's parents married in 1983 and traveled between Ukraine and Syria before settling in Damascus in 1995. Her grandfather on her mother's side fought in World War Two.

On her father's side, the family fled the town of Nazareth in 1948 when Israel was created and 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled. They were granted citizenship in Syria.

"I should be happy to have three countries to live in, but I can't live in any of them," Naji said.

Naji has lived in relative safety since the war in Syria broke out, in an area outside Damascus that was not badly affected. One of her friends came to stay for this reason, after her brother was killed in shelling, she added.

The main frontlines of the conflict have been largely frozen for several years. But poverty and hardship are worse than at any point since the war erupted.

Speaking about the start of the war, she said: "The problem is we were young when these things began."

"We grew older and got used to them."

The Ukraine invasion marks the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.

"I am an artist ... I don't understand why this is happening and I don't want to understand, but I have to because it is my cause - as is Palestine ... and of course Syria," she said.



Rain, Floods Add to Misery of Sudanese Displaced by War

FILE PHOTO: A person drives a vehicle through a flooded street, following a heavy rainfall in Kassala, eastern Sudan, July 26, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Abdel Majid/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A person drives a vehicle through a flooded street, following a heavy rainfall in Kassala, eastern Sudan, July 26, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Abdel Majid/File Photo
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Rain, Floods Add to Misery of Sudanese Displaced by War

FILE PHOTO: A person drives a vehicle through a flooded street, following a heavy rainfall in Kassala, eastern Sudan, July 26, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Abdel Majid/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A person drives a vehicle through a flooded street, following a heavy rainfall in Kassala, eastern Sudan, July 26, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Abdel Majid/File Photo

Thousands of people are stranded on the streets of the eastern Sudanese city of Kassala as a deluge of rain compounds the suffering of more than a million Sudanese who sought refuge in the region from a 15-month-old war, Reuters reported.
The rainy season that began earlier this month has already damaged shelters, made roads unusable, and will put millions at risk of water-borne diseases across large areas of the country.
It comes as the number of displaced people within Sudan, currently more than 10 million, continues to tick up as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) expands its territory in the war with the national army.
The war erupted in April 2023 and has sparked warnings of famine and what the United Nations has labelled the world's largest humanitarian crisis.
Some 765,000 people are sheltering in Gedaref state, and more than 255,000 people are in Kassala state, which saw the worst of the rains over the weekend, according to the United Nations.
The most recent wave of 165,000 people is from Sennar state, many arriving on foot in the rain in recent weeks. More than 10,000 who arrived in Kassala city were packed in the few remaining empty buildings, including a school courtyard and an empty hangar, which quickly flooded with water.
"We endured the sun beating down on us, but we can't handle the rain," said Nada Omer.
They now wait under store awnings or tarps in the street, with heavier than usual rains expected to continue until September. Some have rejected a plan to move them outside the city, a government official and aid workers said, where there would be few income opportunities.
"We are waiting in the street and have nowhere to settle," said Hussein Abdo, another displaced person.
At least five people have reportedly been killed because of the rains, according to the United Nations.
Those who arrived earlier from Khartoum or El Gezira state, or in slightly drier al-Gedaref, are not much better off, sleeping on the floor in schools with few services and makeshift, shallow toilets that have also been flooded.
Little was done to prepare for the situation, said Plan International's Mohammed Qazilbash. "We are coming up to 500 days of the war, and everybody is exhausted... It's one tragedy over another over another," he told Reuters.
The government and aid workers are bracing for the expected rise in water-borne diseases, including cholera, malaria, and dengue fever, with few medicines to treat them.
"We are sharing what is available, but it is above our capacity" said Dr. Ali Adam, head of the state health ministry.
The rainy season impacts most of the country. Last week, more than 1,000 houses and 800 latrines were destroyed by rain at Zamzam camp in North Darfur, one of the locations in the country where experts say famine is likely.
Meanwhile, the RSF's advance has not stopped, and on Monday it said it had reached an area about 180km from Gedaref, one of the states that has sheltered the most people.
Kassala, the only neighboring army-controlled state, does not have capacity to absorb people from Gedaref, nor does the army's de facto capital Port Sudan, on the Red Sea.
"People are scared, but there's no options," said a volunteer in the Gedaref emergency response room. "They are awaiting their fate, the other cities are full."