Al-Waer residents wary of ceasefire

STONE SOUP: Rebels in the holdout neighborhood of Al-Waer – the last opposition-controlled area in Homs city – agreed upon a tentative truce with the Assad regime Sunday, leading to a mixed reaction from residents.

“I do not trust the regime in this truce because a number of [regime] security officers benefit from the siege of Al-Waer and profit from it,” Hassan Abu Zein, the director of the pro-opposition Coalition of Youth for the Revolution in Homs, told Syria Direct Monday.

The regime and rebels have agreed to truces before, none of which have lasted.

Prior to the new truce over the weekend, the lack of food had become so severe that children were reported as eating vegetation around the neighborhood due to extreme hunger. Most humanitarian relief agencies have already suspended their work in Al-Waer because of their inability to safely enter and distribute supplies inside the district.

At least some Syrians appear hopeful about the deal local sheikhs and the senior opposition leadership struck with the regime, which reportedly would reopen the roads into the neighborhood for the 300,000 people who live there, in addition to allowing the elderly and sick to safely leave.

“God protect this amazing child and our families in Al-Waer,” said one commentator of the picture, which was widely circulated on by pro-opposition activists on social media Sunday after the truce was announced.

“God protect you all,” said another.

-September 22, 2014

-Photo courtesy of Lens Young Homsi.

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