BEIRUT (AP) – Lines stretch for miles outside gas stations in Syrian cities, with an average wait of five hours to fill a tank. At bakeries, people push and push during long and chaotic waits for their turn to collect the share of two packets of bread a day per family.
On the streets of the capital Damascus, beggars approach drivers and passers-by, pleading for food or money. Medicines, baby milk and diapers can hardly be found.
As Syria marks its 10th anniversary Monday since the start of its civil warPresident Bashar Assad could still be in power, backed by Russia and Iran. But millions of people are being pushed deeper into poverty, and a majority of households are struggling to make ends meet.
As Assad prepares to run for a fourth seven-year presidential term in the spring, some have questioned whether he can survive the severe economic deterioration and anger in the areas under his control. Poverty levels are now worse than at any time in the 10-year conflict.
“Life here is a portrait of humiliation and daily suffering,” said a woman in Damascus. Her husband lost his job at an electronics store last month, and now the family is using poor savings that are rapidly evaporating. The woman said she started teaching part-time to help her meet. Like others, she spoke on condition that her identity remain hidden, fearing arrest.
With two children and an elderly father to look after, she said life had become unbearably difficult and she was anxious for the future. Until recently, she could have smuggled her father’s drugs from Lebanon, but now Lebanon has its own crisis and shortcomings.
“I’m going to shock and I really have to think about priorities, buying only the ones needed for cooking. I try not to look at the other things my kids might like, ”she said.
The decade of war broke out incomprehensibly the destruction of Syria. Nearly half a million people were killed and more than half of the pre-war population, with 23 million displaced, either inside or outside the country’s borders, the world’s worst relocation crisis since World War II. The infrastructure is in ruins.
For most of the conflict, Assad has managed to protect Syrians in government-held territory from unbearable economic pain. Even if only sometimes, the state kept the fuel, medicines and other supplies, and the currency was supported.
He has now gained decisive control in the war with the help of Russia and Iran, control over the areas under his control is indisputable, and the rebellion is largely crushed.
But the economy fell apart with astonishing rapidity. It has been hit by a double blow of new, far-reaching sanctions imposed by the United States last year and the financial crisis in Lebanon, Syria’s main link with the outside world. This has proved too much, in addition to the strains of war, government corruption, other Western sanctions in place for years and the coronavirus pandemic.
The United Nations says more than 80 percent of Syrians now live in poverty and 60 percent are at risk of starvation. The currency has collapsed, now at 4,000 Syrian pounds to the dollar on the black market, compared to 700 a year ago and 47 at the beginning of the conflict in 2011.
“When you put all these things together, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing rising food insecurity, rising hunger,” said Arif Hussein, chief economist at the UN World Food Program. “Not only in width, that is, many people, but also in depth, that is, people are closer to hunger today than ever.”
Government residents who spoke to The Associated Press paint a bleak picture. Prices rise several times a day. Families now rely on electronic “smart cards” to provide subsidized and rationed goods, which include fuel, gas barrels, tea, sugar, rice and bread. To collect them, wait in long lines, often pushing, pushing and fighting.
At gas stations, some park their cars at night to claim their place and return early in the morning to fill their cars. Residents walk or walk whenever possible to avoid wasting fuel.
REPUBLIC OF TAILS
“It is the ‘Republic of Things’,” said Ibrahim Hamidi, a London-based Syrian journalist who covers Syrian affairs for the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
Despite growing dissatisfaction, Assad’s rule is not threatened because people are too busy with their own survival, he said. “They do not have time to think about anything political. They don’t have time to think about transition, constitution or reform, because they are busy all the time. ”
Food prices have risen 230% in the last year and many Syrians say they are consumed in search of essential goods that are no longer available. Many families run out of meat and fruit for months. At vegetable markets, people often buy a single piece because they can’t afford more. The monthly salary of a state employee is now worth $ 15-20, compared to about $ 170 a year ago.
In major cities, many plan their day around the electricity program because the power is cut off by four hours for every two that is turned on, sometimes longer. Unlike Lebanon, where neighborhood generators have been institutionalized, only wealthy people can afford it in Syria.
In winter, with small bottles of gas, many have resorted to the use of old heaters that are toxic to heat, with children being seen rummaging through the garbage to burn anything.
The simultaneous crises in Lebanon and Syria have fed on each other. Where Lebanese once traveled to Damascus to buy cheaper, high-quality medicines, textiles and other goods, Lebanon’s subsidized goods, including fuel and medicines, are now being smuggled into Syria, exacerbating Lebanon’s economic crisis.
A Syrian media activist named Omar Hariri said the rations of bread, gasoline, cooking gas and diesel barely cover 10% of people’s needs. Waiting in line for hours has become “a way of life,” he said.
“I have a relative who received his turn for petrol in January after two months of cold and had to buy on the black market at a much higher price,” he said.
WALLS OF FEAR
Syrian economist Samir Seifan said the collapse of Lebanon’s banking system, US sanctions and the pandemic were “factors that exploded at the same time.” Now the regime has no sources of income, so it prints money and fuels inflation, he said.
Frustration is expressed even among Assad’s most loyal supporters. A lawmaker recently wondered why Iran and Russia did not help by sending oil and wheat.
The government has cracked down, detaining at least nine people in the past six weeks, including a prominent state television anchor for critical social media posts.
“The regime is trying to rebuild the walls of fear, to remind people that even if you are loyal, you cannot criticize us,” Hamidi said.
Assad blames the US, calling his sanctions economic terrorism that tries to starve people. Regional changing dynamics increase his confidence; some Gulf Arab countries that have backed the Syrian opposition are now openly critical of sanctions.
“In 10 years of war, the (Syrian) regime has not offered a single concession. There is a general feeling that things can only get worse, “said Hamidi.
“There is no horizon, no hope.”
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Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue of Beirut contributed to the report.
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Watch AP coverage of the 10th anniversary of the Arab Spring riots at https://apnews.com/hub/arab-spring