As food and water were handed out, I moved from bus to bus speaking with people who endured years-long shortages of food, medicine, clean water, work and education " the basic essentials of life. Most people I spoke to said they were starving because they couldn't afford the hefty prices of food in the camp, which they blamed on Rukban's merchants. Some blamed the terrorist groups operating in the camp and still others blamed the Americans. A few women I spoke to blamed the Syrian government, saying no aid had entered Rukban at all, a claim that would later be refuted by reports from both the UN and Red Crescent.
An old woman slumped on the floor of one bus recounted:
We were dying of hunger, life was hell there. Traders [merchants] sold everything at high prices, very expensive; we couldn't afford to buy things. We tried to leave before today but we didn't have money to pay for a car out. There were no doctors; it was horrible there."
Aboard another bus, an older woman sat on the floor, two young women and several babies around her. She had spent four years in the camp: "Everything was expensive, we were hungry all the time. We ate bread, za'atar, yogurt" We didn't know meat, fruit""
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