Photo/Illutration Rescue workers and residents search through the rubble of collapsed buildings in the town of Harem near the Turkish border in Idlib province, Syria, on Feb. 8. (AP Photo)

“This is a truly disgusting thing to say, but I felt envious of the mother who died before her child did,” Waad Al-Kateab said quietly as she cuddled her infant daughter.

Al-Kateab is the director of “For Sama,” a critically acclaimed 2019 documentary film that depicts the horrors of the Syrian civil war.

The above comment was made in a scene in the film, the Japanese title of which is “Musume wa Senjo de Umareta” (My daughter was born on the battlefield).

The hospital in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, where her husband works as a doctor, receives an endless stream of people covered in blood. Sounds of exploding bombs are constantly heard in the background. A woman wails at the side of her dead child.

“I never thought the world would just sit by and do nothing while this disaster was going on,” Al-Kateab said.

A deadly earthquake that struck earlier this week was centered in southern Turkey but it has also dealt a severe blow to Syria, where the damage is said to be spreading.

The civil war has reportedly killed an estimated 300,000 civilians since it started in 2011. Air bombings have reduced cities to rubble, displacing several millions of people from their homes. And now, a new disaster has befallen them.

“My son and daughter are under here,” a local resident was quoted as telling The AFP as he continued digging in the rubble with his bare hands, shivering in the cold. “I can hear their voices. They are still alive, but I can't save them.”

With the continuation of fighting between government and anti-government forces, the region’s administrative structure is highly complex. This is said to have created many communities that are completely beyond the reach of international humanitarian relief agencies.

But the unfolding catastrophe is beyond human understanding. In a moment of desperation, I feel like screaming, “Can’t anything be done?”

After the earthquake, Al-Kateab turned to social media to seek help for Syria. She posted to the effect, “(The survivors) desperately need help. They need more rescuers, medical attention, food, evacuation centers. There must be something we can do.”

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 10

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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