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They include a team of doctors led by a US veteran and his children, as well as a group of truckers from an isolated Syrian town.
Nearly 40,000 people fled the last bastions of the Islamic State's Euphrates Valley to reach a territory held by US-backed Syrian democratic forces, in appalling conditions after weeks of shelling and food shortages.
Citing security concerns, global humanitarian agencies have kept their distance from the city of Baghouz, where jihadists are fighting the last fight and the limited humanitarian capabilities of homeless people can not cope with the influx .
Enter the Free Burma Rangers (FBR).
Led by a pbadionate American veteran, David Eubank, the team of about 25 volunteers – including his wife and three children – is camping on a plateau overlooking Baghouz, which is the first stop for fleeing civilians.
"We are not qualified to be here, I asked God, what would I do here?" Eubank told AFP, wearing a military outfit and a fisherman's hat, a holster pistol on his hip.
"I felt God say:" Give up on your way. Bring help, " he said.
In the distance, about two dozen civilians could be seen heading towards the plateau from Baghouz.
Eubank and another volunteer were the first to descend on the sandy shore to meet them, lifting the padded bags of displaced women on their shoulders and helping the children climb.
'God sent us here & # 39;
A bearded volunteer healed the wound on the chest of a skinny boy, screaming for antibiotics in English while the child looked at him with confusion.
Eubank created the FBR in Burma in 1997, with a slogan taken from a biblical verse calling people to "preach the good news to the poor" and "free the oppressed."
After ISIS swept the region in 2014, the RBF expanded to Iraq, where Eubank, his wife, and their three children became local celebrities for rescuing an Iraqi girl. after her mother was killed in fighting in Mosul.
What brought them to Syria? Another message from God, said Sahale, the eldest daughter of Eubank.
"We feel as if God had sent us here, otherwise we would not have come," said the 18-year-old, who usually drives the wounded to the civilian center, but who spends a quiet afternoon in study Thai in the shadow of an armored personnel carrier.
When they do not treat civilians, the rest of the team spends their free time jogging in the Syrian plains, praying and doing "camp equipment," said Tyler Sheen, an elderly volunteer. 24 years.
Sheen, from Colorado, said that he felt in the right place to witness the end of the IS.
"It's the scourge, the most talked about evil in the world, so I think it's a great place to be right now," he told AFP. .
The volunteers inevitably have a strange figure in the Syrian plain, surrounded by Syrian and Syrian Kurdish fighters and bourbriers with whom they can only communicate through translators.
When the homeless spokesman visited their outpost recently, Eubank grabbed by the hand to guide him in prayer, while a translator stood between them, as he said. presided over a wedding ceremony.
Livestock trucks
But if the Eubanks are inspired by goodwill, the truck drivers, who are another vital link in the evacuation of civilians from Baghouz, are motivated by financial benefits.
Once the displaced families are taken to a more remote collection point, they are examined and guided to the back of the cargo trucks to be driven about six hours north of the IDP camp. Hol.
Their 11 drivers are members of the tribe of the city of Al-Shuhayl, engaged by the homeless at the rate of 75,000 Syrian pounds ($ 150) per round trip, which usually takes two days.
"Wherever we can win a trip, we do it," said a driver in his 40s, Farhan al-Ali.
Some truckers said they relied on pills to stay awake throughout the 600-mile (380-mile) round trip.
"Sometimes we arrive at Al-Hol at two or three in the morning and then return to Shuhayl," said Abu Hamud, a 54-year-old driver wearing a red and white scarf on his head. .
They are used to carrying livestock or farm equipment. Dozens of women and veiled children are therefore an unusual charge – and fragile.
The International Rescue Committee, working in global crisis areas, said on Wednesday that 51 people, mostly newborns, had died after arriving in Al-Hol or during the "precarious trip".
The United Nations has called on the authorities to provide more suitable means of transport, such as buses.
"My heart hurts children, they are tiny and hungry," said Abu Hamud. "A 20-day-old baby died in my truck."
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