On the eve of 2018, on Sunday the 30th of December, the elections for the presidency and the National Assembly of the DRC finally took place. These hard-won elections were the result of heavy pressure from the Catholic church in Congo, political activists and the international community on the current president Joseph Kabila who has stayed […]
Tuesday 18 December I couldn’t reach Ahmed for the last week. I saw that he wasn’t online, not on WhatsApp or on Facebook. I was getting worried, so I asked a Syrian friend in Amsterdam to find out what was going on. The news came quickly – everything was OK. Ahmed, I’ve been trying to […]
Friday 30 November Friday Raed Fares and Hammoud Juneid from Kafranbel were killed. The news about the murder of the two activists spread immediately around the world, causing shockwaves among Syrians and friends of Syria. Raed was known throughout the world for, among other things, the cartoons and cutting slogans sent form Kafranbel every week. […]
Tuesday 6 November On Friday in Jarjanaz, a village about 25 kilomteres from Saraqeb, the Syrian army fired on the town using heavy artillery. Ten people were killed. In Saraqeb, people could feel the ground shake during the attack. Ahmed called, but he had something else he wanted to talk about. “Hi, Ahmed, I see […]
Tuesday 30 October We just heard the news that Mieke van Ee, a peace activist and a good friend of PAX, was involved in a serious car accident. For Ahmed, even though he has never met or spoken with Mieke, she represents an important moment in his life. Two years ago Mieke sent him a […]
Tuesday 23 October In addition to the establishment of a ‘weapons free zone’ around the province of Idlib, two main highways, the M4 and the M5, from Hama to Aleppo and from Lattakia to Aleppo, were re-opened for traffic and goods. Some see this as a victory for the regime in its effort to regain […]
Wednesday 17 October It’s warmer than usual in Idlib. They have an old saying that a warm summer leads to a severe winter. Ahmed has taken precautions, so he’s ready for the cold. “Hi Ahmed. What shall we talk about?” “Let’ see… actually, everything’s fine. My family is doing well, and yesterday we did a […]
Wednesday 10 October In just a few days, the weapons-free zone around Idlib will be in place. So far, it seems to be going well. The armed groups are pulling back. Bombing raids have stopped, but the armed groups continue to fight one another. In spite of everything, Ahmed and his friends are making the […]
A city once known as the Venice of the Arab word, riddled with fresh water rivers and date palms orchards, is currently going through a critical water shortage and pollution crisis. But this is not the only issue that locals in Basra have to deal with on a daily basis. The city is witnessing a […]
Friday 28 September In Idlib the situation is quiet again since the Syrian Army and Russian Air Force ceased their attacks. But the repression and acts of violence by the jihadi’s from HTS (formerly known as al-Nusra) are on the rise. In Saraqeb they’ve banned all demonstrations and have threatened to detain people who take […]