The latest picture of a five-year-old boy in the boy Omran Daqneesh or ‘boy in the ambulance’, who was rescued from the rubble after a devastating airstrike in Aleppo, has stunned everyone across the globe and is making rounds on the internet.
While reporting, CNN’s Kate Bolduan broke down in tears on Thursday as she reported about the ‘boy in the ambulance’
The image of the stunned and weary-looking boy with dust and blood on his face, sitting in an orange chair inside an ambulance, encapsulated the horrors inflicted on the war-ravaged northern city.
The anchor failed to contain her emotions on air as the haunting image brought tears to her eyes.
Terribly disturbed by the footage, the anchor held herself together and went said, “What strikes me is, we shed tears, but there are no tears here,” talking about Omran.
“He doesn’t cry once. That little boy is in total shock. Inside his home one moment, and the next — lost in the flurry and fury of war and chaos.”
The image of Omran in the orange chair reminded one of the images of Aylan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian boy whose body was found on a beach in Turkey and came to encapsulate the horrific toll of Syria’s civil war.
The image reminded people of another heart-wrenching photo, that of Aylan Kurdi, the boy who drowned in the Mediterranean while fleeing Syria in Septemeber 2015. And Khalid Albaih, an artist, summarised the choices available for children in Syria through a simple yet powerful picture he tweeted on August 18.
The artist drew Aylan Kurdi and Omran Daqneesh, side by side, with his text saying, “Choices for Syrian children”.
#Khartoon – Choices #OmranDaqneesh 5 pulled from under the ruins, #AylanKurdi 3 drowned in the Mediterranean #Syria pic.twitter.com/Y4XQgfKgHt
— ALBAIH (@khalidalbaih) August 18, 2016