Published TUESDAY April 23, 2024: Rebuilding Raqqa 'Pearl of the Euphrates' by ZUMA Partner agency Le Pictorium photo-journalist Chris Huby: The city of Raqqa symbolizes the tragic fate of Syria over the past 12 years. From the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, the northern city was a major target for rebel groups. It then became the stronghold of Islamic State group terrorists, who made Raqqa the capital of their self-proclaimed caliphate. The city went through three years of hell, suffering atrocities, public hangings and slave auctions, before being bombed and then liberated in 2017 by an international US-led coalition. Since then, the ''Pearl of the Euphrates'' has struggled to get back on track. Welcome to Rebuilding Raqqa 'Pearl of the Euphrates'
© zReportage.com Issue #936 Story of the Week: Published TUESDAY April 23, 2024: Rebuilding Raqqa 'Pearl of the Euphrates' by ZUMA Partner agency Le Pictorium photo-journalist Chris Huby: The city of Raqqa symbolizes the tragic fate of Syria over the past 12 years. From the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, the northern city was a major target for rebel groups. It then became the stronghold of Islamic State group terrorists, who made Raqqa the capital of their self-proclaimed caliphate. The city went through three years of hell, suffering atrocities, public hangings and slave auctions, before being bombed and then liberated in 2017 by an international US-led coalition. Since then, the ''Pearl of the Euphrates'' has struggled to get back on track. Welcome to Rebuilding Raqqa 'Pearl of the Euphrates'
Children sit on colorful letters of the city of Raqqa in Northern Syria amid rubble and nearby damaged buildings in the aftermath of war.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Shells of partially destroyed buildings fill the city of Raqqa. 80 percent of structures were destroyed by the war, and its estimated only 50 percent rebuilt.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Residents gather for a large demonstration against the Turkish bombing of their homes and the current high living costs in Raqqa. In late September and early October 2023, the Turks destroyed 80 percent of Raqqa's energy infrastructure.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Raqqa in Northern Syria has become huge construction site since the end of the war in 2017, almost 80 percent of the city was destroyed, and over 50 percent still remains in ruins.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A teenager listens to music through headphones at a building site in Raqqa. On the city's many reconstruction sites, over 3,000 young children are working in unsafe conditions. Generally deprived of schooling, they accompany their fathers to work and earn much needed income for their families.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
On the city's many reconstruction sites, over 3,000 young children are working in unsafe conditions. Generally deprived of schooling, they accompany their fathers to work.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
The New Bridge across the Euphrates river has been under construction since the end of 2022, its behind schedule, and the site is suffering the financial penalties of the Caesar law brought by the USA and the EU. Caesar sanctions are intended to create accountability for crimes by the Syrian government and its allies Russia and Iran.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
The Northern Syrian city of Raqqa is slowly being rebuilt after war. During the Syrian Civil War, the city was captured in 2013 by the Syrian opposition and then by the Islamic State. ISIS made the city its capital in 2014. As a result, the city was hit by airstrikes from the Syrian government, Russia, the United States and coalition forces.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
The 'Oxygen Shabab Association' reintegrates into society Syrian women, and former wives of jihadists. When they leave the al-Hol camp, they are helped to find housing, work and food. YASMINE works in a cosmetics and beauty store. 32 years old, with two children and no husband, she thinks only of making money to survive. Rejected by society, she would like to hide and disappear. She finds the coalition government, Kurdish, dishonest. 'Under (ISIS) Daech, things were more obvious' she says.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A man counts bundles of Syrian pounds that total the equivalent of ten US dollars. Constantly devalued by years of war and inflation, the currency is now worth almost nothing, currently 1 USD is over 2,500 Syrian pounds.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Working at a laptop, MOUNA, 30, was married to a jihadist killed during the war, she has three children. She has found work with the association and, according to her, has distanced herself from radical ideas. The 'Oxygen Shabab Association' has decided to reintegrate Syrian women, former wives of jihadists.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Under the bridge over the Euphrates in Northern Syria, teenagers dive into the cool river waters every day during the hot summer.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A family enjoys the cooling waters of the Euphrates river. At the end of the day, the many residents of Raqqa come to cool off on the banks of the Euphrates. The abnormally high temperatures are what drive them there. It was 48 degrees celsius in early September.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A fisherman's son borrows his father's boat for a few minutes to visit the Euphrates river. After the war the boys father is financially ruined, and there are hardly any fish left in the river.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
MOHAMED, a farmer from Raqqa, has been pumping water from the Euphrates river for as long as he can remember. He has many fields and crops that rely on irrigation from the river. He explains that the level of the Euphrates is dropping and is worried about his crops.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
MOHAMED, a farmer from Raqqa, has been pumping water from the Euphrates for as long as he can remember. He has many fields and crops. He explains that the level of the Euphrates is dropping and is worried, 'if the water continues to fall like this, the whole country's agriculture will be affected' he states.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A worker fills a water tank at the Hattash IDP camp, in Northern Syria. Thanks to the NGO Solidarites International, chlorinated water is distributed in the camps on a daily basis. Internally Displaced Persons from Deir ez-Zor receive rationed quantities of water calculated per family.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A water distribution truck driver brings his water tanker into one of the IDP camps to fill tanks for the residents. He was a teacher before the war and took this job just to survive.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
A woman pours water into her bucket from a water tank at the Hattash IDP camp. The NGO Solidarites International has succeeded in installing a water distribution system for the people living in the camp.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Sahel Banat IDP camp is home to 1,800 families living in squalid conditions, all displaced from the war-torn city of Deir ez-Zor. This man explains that he has been here for 3 years, surviving on what he finds in the rubbish dump.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Children from the Sahel Banat IDP camp rummage through the garbage cans to find enough to eat and to resell anything else they find. Forgotten among the forgotten, the extreme poverty that befalls them feeds the bed of jihadism.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Jarwa IDP camp, home to over a thousand Syrian families displaced from Deir ez-Zor governorate. According to EUAA as of 2022, the number of IDPs (internally displaced persons) in the region was stated to be 39,274.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
Sahel Banat IDP camp is home to 1,800 families living in squalid conditions, all displaced from the war-torn city of Deir ez-Zor. The children, in order to live and keep busy, rummage through the garbage cans to find enough to eat. Forgotten among the forgotten, the extreme poverty that befalls them feeds the bed of jihadism.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
ASMA, in her thirties, lives in a makeshift tent shelter with her two children at the Jarwa IDP camp and has been suffering from the food emergency since the summer of 2023. The camp, in Northern Syria is home to over a thousand Syrian families displaced from Deir ez-Zor governate.
© Chris Huby/Le Pictorium Agency via ZUMA Press
