IDLIB, Syria

Using grains of sand, a Syrian artist depictures the suffering of the Syrians who had to take refuge in camps in Idlib province after being displaced from their hometowns in the war-torn country.

Muhammed Saeed told Anadolu Agency that he had to migrate from the city of Maaret al-Numan in northwestern Syria to Idlib city 15 months ago.

Through sand art, Saeed aims to portray the destruction of houses in attacks carried out by the Bashar al-Assad regime and its supporters, and the struggle for life by civilians, who took shelter in makeshift tents.

“Using sand art, I illustrate the migration of the innocent civilians into tents and their sufferings during the cold winter”, Saeed said.

The Syrian artist hopes to raise awareness about the pain of the Syrian people and their difficult living conditions in the tents.

“In one of my art pieces, I portray how regime warplanes were flying over a neighborhood in Syria. It shows how they were destroying residential areas and how civilians were dying”, he said.

Syria has been ravaged by a civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN estimates.

Idlib falls within a de-escalation zone forged under an agreement between Turkey and Russia. The area has been the subject of multiple cease-fire understandings, which have frequently been violated by the Assad regime and its allies.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz