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“We don’t ask for anything special as Christians, we want to be treated just as Iraqi citizens, equal to anybody else, no more, no less. We want our human dignity to be respected as all other Iraqi people.”

He was injured during the Syrian war, in 2012, when a staircase collapsed during a bombing, crushing his hands and much of his face.

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has committed to providing more than US$550,000 in aid to help Christians return to their apartments and houses, and support families with rent for temporary accommodation in the meantime.

At least 60 buildings in Aleppo collapsed in the earthquake but the number of houses that may need to be razed will probably in the hundreds.

” How do we face the social problems? Our people have become very poor. How can we face the political problems? We live these cries in all the Arab countries and each country has its own physiognomy of problems.

” Everybody was screaming, they should have exited the house, but everybody stayed put, so I stayed with them. I crouched under a beam and prayed, begging God to have mercy.”

“A 15-year-old boy told me he only had one wish: to take life back to how it was before the war. After 12 years of war, Covid, sanctions, and the collapse of the currency, this latest disaster is more than many people can bear,” he said.

“They use many different expressions to express the 12-year war. But if you ask them about the earthquake that they were exposed to, the answer is just one word: horror.”

“The Church in Syria is shocked by the catastrophe. Even as far away as Beirut, people went down to the streets, worried that another explosion was about to unsettle their country. For now, the Church is checking on its people and families.”

The jihadist terror group was eventually defeated, but the buildings, including two important churches, were almost destroyed, and the population scattered, some to refugee camps, while others emigrated.