How Syria’s continuing food insecurity threatens national and regional stability

Special How Syria’s continuing food insecurity threatens national and regional stability
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People queue to get bread distributed by a charity initiative in a neighborhood in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on December 2, 2024. (AFP)
Special How Syria’s continuing food insecurity threatens national and regional stability
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Syria’s political transition post-Assad has fueled the hunger crisis, leaving millions in urgent need of aid. (AFP file)
Special How Syria’s continuing food insecurity threatens national and regional stability
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Syria’s political transition post-Assad has fueled the hunger crisis, leaving millions in urgent need of aid. (AFP file)
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Updated 02 February 2025
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How Syria’s continuing food insecurity threatens national and regional stability

How Syria’s continuing food insecurity threatens national and regional stability
  • With more than half of Syria’s population facing food insecurity, experts call for reform and regional cooperation to prevent further conflict
  • Assad’s fall brought hope, but hunger has worsened for millions as violence, looting, and war damage disrupt food supplies

LONDON: More than half of Syria’s population faces food insecurity as the country grapples with the aftermath of 13 years of civil war, the abrupt collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime, and a surge of returnees.

Inadequate funding for aid organizations during this political transition risks deepening and prolonging the crisis.

A recent report by the Food Security Cluster, a UN-led coordination group, revealed that 14.5 million people in Syria are food insecure, including 9.1 million facing acute food insecurity and 5.4 million at risk of hunger.

The report, published on Jan. 25, emphasized that Syria’s sudden power shift and ongoing political transition have increased pressure on its fragile food systems, reshaping humanitarian needs.

Rola Dashti, executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, described the current phase in Syria as a “critical juncture,” stressing that the country must either move toward reconstruction and reconciliation or risk falling into deeper chaos.

“The stakes for the country, and for the region, could not be higher,” she said in a January statement.

“Food insecurity is rampant, healthcare systems are crumbling, and entire communities have been uprooted. This is one of the world’s most protracted humanitarian crises, and our findings make clear it could get worse if immediate steps are not taken.”




A boy carries freshly-baked bread as people line up outside a bakery in the Syrian capital Damascus on December 21, 2024. (AFP)

On Dec. 8, a coalition of opposition groups led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham seized control of Syria’s capital Damascus, following a sweeping 12-day offensive that toppled Assad.

And although Assad’s ouster provided some relief to Syrians, it also plunged the country into fresh political and economic uncertainty, with the country deeply fractured and up to 1 million refugees expected to return by June, according to UN figures.

Recent clashes have sparked a new wave of displacement, with some 1.1 million people newly displaced, mainly in Idlib, Aleppo, Homs, and Hama.

The surge in violence since late November has been a major driver of food insecurity, according to the Food Security Cluster’s report. Warehouses and public services have been looted, while damage to agricultural infrastructure has disrupted the planting season.




Syria’s political transition post-Assad has fueled the hunger crisis, leaving millions in urgent need of aid. (AFP file) 

This lawlessness, especially in northeastern and southern Syria, has created logistical challenges, blocked roads, and restricted aid access, severely disrupting food security.

Some 90 percent of Syrians currently live below the poverty line and some 16.7 million need humanitarian assistance, according to the UN.

Without bold reforms and swift international support, these needs are expected to grow, ESCWA warns.

The Food Security Cluster said $560 million is needed to fund a three-month emergency response providing food assistance and livelihood support during Syria’s political transition and uncertainty.

However, funding for aid remains insufficient. Cindy McCain, director of the World Food Programme, has said that some governments are reluctant to increase support for urgent humanitarian needs in Syria under the country’s new interim rulers.

And although the new leadership in Damascus has pledged a radical overhaul of the struggling economy, including privatization and public sector job cuts, it faces enormous challenges.

Western sanctions and more than a decade of conflict have left Syria’s economy in tatters. The country’s gross domestic product has contracted by 64 percent since the beginning of the war in 2011, according to a recent ESCWA report.

The report, released in late January, noted that Syria’s currency lost nearly two-thirds of its value against the US dollar in 2023 alone, driving consumer inflation to an estimated 40.2 percent in 2024.




Syria’s currency lost nearly two-thirds of its value against the US dollar in 2023 alone, driving consumer inflation to an estimated 40.2 percent in 2024. (AFP)

Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, believes the collapse of the Assad regime is largely tied to the failure of Syria’s economy.

“Government pay for officers in the army was $30 a month, and only $10 for enlisted men, which gives one a sense of the terrible need,” he told Arab News.

“The HTS government has increased those government wages by 400 percent, thanks to the largesse of Qatar, but wages remain extremely low.”

In mid-December, Syria’s interim government announced plans to dramatically increase the salaries of public servants. However, this plan involves laying off a third of the state workforce, Reuters reported.

The first wave of layoffs came just weeks after Assad’s ouster. Ministers in the interim government told Reuters that removing “ghost employees” — those who received salaries for doing little or nothing — was part of a crackdown on waste and corruption.




Syria’s interim government announced plans to dramatically increase the salaries of public servants. but the plan involves laying off a third of the state workforce. (AFP)

Landis says the layoffs are likely to worsen the hunger crisis for certain groups.

“Employees of the old regime are quickly being purged, as new employees whose ambitions and loyalties are better aligned with the new government are recruited by HTS,” he said.

“This means that hunger and insecurity is being redistributed to those Syrians who used to be favored by the Assad regime.”

Residents of Damascus and its hinterlands say that while the capital has seen an influx of foreign goods and a drop in prices since Assad’s departure, purchasing power remains low, especially as public servants and many private sector workers have not been paid in two months.

“We have a saying in Syria: a camel costs only one pound, but we don’t have that pound,” Umm Samir, a 55-year-old housekeeper from Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, Rif Dimashq, told Arab News.

“Prices of food have certainly dropped, and there are no shortages,” she said. “But in our area, many have not brought a pound home for almost two months.”

She added: “For example, a bottle of olive oil cost 100,000 Syrian pounds before Dec. 8; now it’s sold for 75,000. A kilogram of sugar was 20,000; now it’s 9,000.”




Blacksmiths work in a forge in the town of Douma, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus. (AFP)

The drop in prices is partly due to a strengthening of the Syrian pound against the US dollar. On Friday, the dollar traded at 9,900 Syrian pounds, down from about 15,000 Syrian pounds before Dec. 8.

Syria expert Landis noted that while “food prices went down a bit once HTS took Damascus, because Turkish and foreign goods began to move freely into Syria without tariffs, bread prices went up.”

He added: “Bread is a major part of the Syrian diet, particularly for the 50 percent of Syrians facing food insecurity.”

Damascus residents told Arab News that a bundle of subsidized bread, which once cost 500 Syrian pounds, has seen its price jump to 4,000 Syrian pounds following Assad’s fall from power.




Syrians stand in queue to buy bread in the town of Binnish in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib. (AFP file)

When many cannot afford this essential food item, the influx of Turkish and Western goods — much more expensive than local products — makes little difference. If anything, it serves as a stark reminder of the struggle many families face to meet their basic needs.

Yusra, a 33-year-old computer engineer from Muhajreen, an upscale neighborhood in central Damascus, said that although three members of her household of six are breadwinners, they still could not afford many food items, such as meat, fruit, and sweets.

“It doesn’t matter that we now have Snickers bars, Ulker cookies, or brie cheese in local supermarkets when most people can’t afford basic things like sugar or apples,” she told Arab News.

“In my family, whenever we have an occasion, be it a birthday or Eid, we have to cut corners to buy cake or meat.




Syrians work at a vegetables market in Aleppo, on December 23, 2024. Aleppo's old city. (AFP)

“My brother works for a private marketing company but has not received his salary for January as the business is struggling.”

But the problem goes beyond families’ inability to meet basic needs. WFP chief McCain called Syria’s hunger crisis a national and regional security issue, particularly during this critical transition period.

“What’s at stake here is not just hunger — and hunger is big enough. But it’s about the future of this country and how it moves forward into this next phase,” she told the Associated Press during her first visit to Syria in mid-January.

On the national level, Syria expert Landis warns that if the interim government led by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa fails to implement economic and political reforms, it will likely face growing opposition.




Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, speaks to the media during a meeting with Qatar's Minister of State Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 23, 2024. (REUTERS)

“Syrians are expecting the new government to jump start the economy, get the US and Western governments to lift sanctions, and to unite the country once again, which will mean that Syria’s oil and gas wells will once again be used by the Damascus government and not the Qamishli government,” he said, referring to the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

“It should be remembered that before 2011, oil and gas revenue provided 50 percent of the government budget. If President Al-Sharaa cannot get the economy back on its feet quickly, he is likely to face growing opposition and Syria is likely to remain turbulent and unstable.”




Farmers work to harvest wheat at a field in Raqa, northeastern Syria, on May 23, 2024. (AFP)

Since early December, protests have erupted across the country, with demands ranging from justice for disappeared activists to calls for improved public services and greater representation for various Syrian sects.

On the regional level, “a poor and hungry Syria will continue to pump out refugees,” Landis said. “All of Syria’s neighbors are counting on Syrian stability and economic growth to entice refugees to return home.”

He added: “If Syria stumbles, the reverberations will be felt throughout the region. The country will remain divided among foreign militaries and a battleground that could easily destabilize its neighbors.”




Caption

The UN warns that unless Syria achieves a stable transition, the hunger crisis will worsen, and reliance on aid will persist. The transition must establish inclusive governance, credible transitional justice, and stronger institutions to build public trust, according to ESCWA’s January report.

The report also states that the country’s stability and recovery depend on regional and international support, including sanctions relief and economic cooperation.

Without political and economic reforms in collaboration with regional and international partners, ESCWA believes Syria risks prolonged instability, further fragmentation, and becoming a haven for cross-border crime.
 

 


Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies

Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies
Updated 08 February 2025
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Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies

Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies
  • Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the Gaza ceasefire
  • Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza

GAZA CITY: Hamas on Friday said Israel’s blocking of heavy machinery entering Gaza to clear rubble caused by war was affecting efforts to extract the bodies of hostages.
“Preventing the entry of heavy equipment and machinery needed to remove 55 million tonnes of rubble ... will undoubtedly affect the resistance’s ability to extract from under the rubble the dead prisoners (hostages),” said Salama Marouf, spokesman for Hamas’s media office in Gaza.
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza, including key items such as fuel, tents, and heavy machinery for clearing rubble.

The Israeli government and COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, have rejected the accusation.
Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
Hamas’ armed wing released the names of three captives it said would be freed on Saturday in a fifth hostage-prisoner swap as part of an ongoing agreement with Israel.
“Within the framework of the Al-Aqsa Flood deal for the prisoner exchange, the (Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades have decided to release” the three hostages, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the armed wing, said on Telegram.


Hamas, Israel to begin fifth hostage-prisoner exchange

Hamas, Israel to begin fifth hostage-prisoner exchange
Updated 08 February 2025
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Hamas, Israel to begin fifth hostage-prisoner exchange

Hamas, Israel to begin fifth hostage-prisoner exchange
  • The three men set to be released on Saturday are Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, according to Hamas

JERUSALEM: Hamas is set to release three Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for 183 prisoners held by Israel in the fifth exchange of a fragile Gaza ceasefire.

The exchange comes despite uproar in the region over a proposal by US President Donald Trump to clear out the Gaza Strip of its inhabitants and for the United States to take over the Palestinian territory.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed to AFP on Friday it had received a list of hostages for release from Gaza after Hamas published three names of captives to be freed.

The three men set to be released on Saturday are Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, according to Hamas. Their names were confirmed by Netanyahu’s office.

Former hostage Yarden Bibas, who was freed last week by Hamas militants in Gaza, on Friday urged Netanyahu to help bring back his wife and two children from the Palestinian territory.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu, I’m now addressing you with my own words... bring my family back, bring my friends back, bring everyone home,” Bibas said in his first public message following his release.

Hamas previously said his wife Shiri and his two sons Ariel and Kfir – the youngest hostages – were dead, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.

Netanyahu, who is in Washington, will “monitor this phase of the hostages’ release from the control center of the delegation in the US,” the premier’s office said in a separate statement.

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum urged the government on Friday to stick with the Gaza truce, even as Trump’s comments sparked uproar across the Middle East and beyond.

“An entire nation demands to see the hostages return home,” the Israeli campaign group said in a statement.

“Now is the time to ensure the agreement is completed – until the very last one,” it added.

Israel and Hamas have completed four swaps under the first stage of the ceasefire agreement.

Palestinian militants, led by Hamas, have so far freed 18 hostages in exchange for around 600 mostly Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

The ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, aims to secure the release of 33 hostages during the first 42-day phase of the agreement.

Negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire were set to begin on Monday, but there have been no details on the status of the talks.

The second stage aims to secure the release of more hostages and pave the way for a permanent end to the war, which began on October 7, 2023 with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel.

During the attack, militants took 251 hostages to Gaza. Seventy-six remain in captivity, including 34 whom the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 47,583 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.


Chemical weapons agency chief to meet Syrian officials in Damascus on Saturday, sources say

Fernando Arias, Director General. (X @OPCW)
Fernando Arias, Director General. (X @OPCW)
Updated 08 February 2025
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Chemical weapons agency chief to meet Syrian officials in Damascus on Saturday, sources say

Fernando Arias, Director General. (X @OPCW)
  • The OPCW has asked the authorities in Syria to secure all relevant locations and safeguard any relevant documentation

DAMASCUS: The head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a global non-proliferation agency, will meet Syrian officials in Damascus on Saturday, three sources familiar with the visit told Reuters.
Director General Fernando Arias was expected to meet interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, two of the sources said, in a sign of Syrian willingness to cooperate with the agency after years of strained relations under now-toppled leader Bashar Assad.
The sudden fall of the Assad government in December brought hope that the country could be rid of chemical weapons.
Following a sarin gas attack that killed hundreds of people in 2013, Syria joined the OPCW under a US-Russian deal and 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons and precursors were destroyed by the international community.
As part of membership, Damascus was supposed to be subjected to inspections. But for more than a decade the OPCW was prevented from uncovering the true scale of the chemical weapons program. Syria’s declared stockpile has never accurately reflected the situation on the ground, inspectors concluded.
When asked about contacts with the OPCW over chemical weapons still in Syria, the country’s new defense minister Murhaf Abu Qasra told Reuters in January that he “does not believe” that any remnants of Syria’s chemical weapons program remained intact.
“Even if there was anything left, it’s been bombed by the Israeli military,” Abu Qasra said, referring to a wave of Israeli strikes across Syria in the wake of Assad’s fall.
Details of the mission to Syria are still being worked out but its key aims will be finding and securing chemical stocks to prevent proliferation risk, identifying those responsible for their use and overseeing the destruction of remaining munitions.
The OPCW has asked the authorities in Syria to secure all relevant locations and safeguard any relevant documentation.
Three investigations — a joint UN-OPCW mechanism, the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification team, and a UN war crimes investigation — concluded that Syrian government forces used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine barrel bombs in attacks during the civil war that killed or injured thousands.
A French court issued an arrest warrant for Assad which was upheld on appeal over the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians. Syria and its military backer Russia always denied using chemical weapons.
The OPCW, a treaty-based agency in The Hague with 193 member countries, is tasked with implementing the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Egypt, North Korea, and South Sudan have neither signed nor acceded to the convention and Israel has signed but not ratified it.

 


US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC

US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC
Updated 08 February 2025
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US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC

US State Department lays out plans for $7 billion-plus arms sale to Israel as Netanyahu visits DC
  • In late January, soon after he took office, he lifted the hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel

WASHINGTON: The State Department has formally told Congress that it plans to sell more than $7 billion in weapons to Israel, including thousands of bombs and missiles, just two days after President Donald Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
The massive arms sale comes as a fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas holds, even as Trump continues to tout his widely criticized proposal to move all Palestinians from Gaza and redevelop it as an international travel destination.
The sale is another step in Trump’s effort to bolster Israel’s weapons stocks. In late January, soon after he took office, he lifted the hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. The Biden administration had paused a shipment of the bombs over concerns about civilian casualties, particularly during an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Trump told reporters that he released them to Israel, “because they bought them.”
According to the State Department, two separate sales were sent to Congress on Friday. One is for $6.75 billion in an array of munitions, guidance kits and other related equipment. It includes 166 small diameter bombs, 2,800 500-pound bombs, and thousands of guidance kits, fuzes and other bomb components and support equipment. Those deliveries would begin this year.
The other arms package is for 3,000 Hellfire missiles and related equipment for an estimated cost of $660 million. Deliveries of the missiles are expected to begin in 2028.
 

 


Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies

People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. (REUTERS)
People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. (REUTERS)
Updated 07 February 2025
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Hamas says Israeli block on diggers affecting extraction of hostages’ bodies

People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. (REUTERS)
  • Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead

GAZA CITY: Hamas on Friday said Israel’s blocking of heavy machinery entering Gaza to clear rubble caused by war was affecting efforts to extract the bodies of hostages.
“Preventing the entry of heavy equipment and machinery needed to remove 55 million tonnes of rubble ... will undoubtedly affect the resistance’s ability to extract from under the rubble the dead prisoners (hostages),” said Salama Marouf, spokesman for Hamas’s media office in Gaza.
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza, including key items such as fuel, tents, and heavy machinery for clearing rubble.

FASTFACT

Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of slowing down aid deliveries expected under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli government and COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, have rejected the accusation.
Of the 251 hostages Hamas seized in its unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 76 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
Hamas’ armed wing released the names of three captives it said would be freed on Saturday in a fifth hostage-prisoner swap as part of an ongoing agreement with Israel.
“Within the framework of the Al-Aqsa Flood deal for the prisoner exchange, the (Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades have decided to release” the three hostages, Abu Obeida, spokesman for the armed wing, said on Telegram.