MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Aug 1 (NNN-XINHUA) – Bibi Maryam, a displaced woman in Mazar-i-Sharif city, the capital of Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province, sits in front of her tent, in a makeshift camp, with two kids. Her house has been destroyed by the ongoing war in the country.
The 37-year-old woman, who seems much older than her real age, said, there had been gunfire almost everyday, and she witnessed the killing of innocent people and destruction of houses.
“My utmost desire in my life is to see peace and to live in peace. This is my dream and what I am praying for. If peace returns I would return to my village and resume my normal life,” Maryam told Xinhua.
Maryam denounced the ongoing war in Afghanistan as the source of all sufferings of ordinary Afghans and lamented that the war has destroyed their houses, rendered many homeless and left countless children orphaned.
“The war has turned our house to ashes, and I am living along with my nephews, whose father has gone missing,” Maryam murmured. Living in a tent in the makeshift camp outside Mazar-i-Sharif, where the temperature is usually above 45 degrees Celsius in summer, she had no cooler or fan available.
“We are living on charity and sometimes begging and asking for alms to find food and water. Begging is a shameful act but we have no choice,” she said.
Maryam said, there are casualties from both the Afghan security forces and the Taliban in the ongoing fighting everyday.
“I pray for the return of peace. I am searching for peace and looking forward to seeing the return of lasting peace in Chamtal district and across Afghanistan, to resume peaceful life free of fear.”
Afghanistan has been the scene of escalating fighting since the start of the U.S.-led forces’ pullout from the country in early May. Since then, the Taliban outfit intensified activities and captured some 200 districts, including four in the Balkh province.
“Living is very difficult in both the villages and inside the makeshift camps. In the villages people are caught in crossfire. In the makeshift camps we don’t have even the basic necessities of live, and we have been suffering since our childhood,” elder of the camp, Hajji Faiz Mohammad lamented.
“We are being killed. We are deprived of our rights. Our children can’t go to school. Nobody seems to pay attention to our sufferings,” Mohammad complained.
Sayed Masoud Qadiri, chief of the Refugees and Repatriation Department in Mazar-i-Sharif, said, surveys are being made on the problems of the people living in the makeshift camps.– NNN-XINHUA
