Sister Annie Demerjian.Sister Annie Demerjian.

A Syrian nun who narrowly escaped one of the deadliest days in Damascus this week, is on her way to Malta to provide a first-hand account of the devastation left by a conflict that has been raging for seven years.

On Tuesday, the skies turned black in the Syrian capital, where Sister Annie Demerjian helps provide emergency help.

The nun, a leading project partner for Aid to the Church in Need, which has an office in Attard, referred to unconfirmed reports of up to 51 rockets landing in and around Bab Touma, a borough of the old city of Damascus.

“It was like hell. It was raining bombs. There were so many shells and so many people injured,” she told international charity ACN.

“I saw people taking their children and running – it was just like Aleppo where I was before the ceasefire there. At 3.30pm a rocket landed on the roof of the Patriarchate close to us. Somehow it did not explode. Had it exploded, we could have been killed.”

Her comments come after a sudden spike of violence in Damascus, including in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.

On Tuesday, international media reported that intense Syrian government shelling and air strikes of rebel-held Damascus suburbs killed at least 98 people on what was the deadliest day in the area in three years.

Sister Demerjian believes that the residents have no other choice but to carry on: “Life is stronger than death. We don’t know how long this violence will continue but it can’t last forever.”

One of the rockets that were dropped on Damascus this week. Photos: Aid to the Church in NeedOne of the rockets that were dropped on Damascus this week. Photos: Aid to the Church in Need

She is due to arrive in Malta on March 15. A public talk about her experiences in Aleppo and Damascus has been planned for March 16 at the Good Shepherd church in Balzan.

Risking her life to deliver aid at the centre of the conflict engulfing Syria, few people know the situation on the ground better than Sister Demerjian. The region has been left sorely bereft of electricity, heating, medicine, schooling, food and clean water.

Born in Damascus, Sister Demerjian initiated an outreach programme in Aleppo as the humanitarian crisis deepened. There, she coordinated a team of volunteers who visited people at their homes to assess their needs and provide basic help, especially for the trapped sick and elderly.

She is now based in her hometown of Damascus providing similar emergency and pastoral help.

Syria is a priority country for ACN and last year the charity fulfilled more than 140 projects there – most of them emergency help including food, shelter and medicine.

For more information visit www.acnmalta.org or get in touch on info@acnmalta.org or 2148 7818.

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