Abd Almajed Alkarh

Following an initial burst of activity when the regime fell and displaced people returned, markets in Reef Dimashq are faltering and facing new challenges.

Reef Dimashq marked the 14th anniversary of the revolution with a central celebration in Darayya this week. Many who attended returned to their communities in recent months after being forcibly displaced by the Assad regime.

Ramadan feels different this year in Darayya, with the return of thousands of displaced people and a fall in some food prices.

Around 25,000 people have returned to Darayya, just south of Damascus, since the regime fell. Destruction and a worsening housing crisis prevents the return of others to the battered city, home to 350,000 people before 2011. 

Wells that hundreds of Idlib residents rely on for drinking water and irrigation have been contaminated by waste at a nearby quarry-turned-dump, while local Salvation Government officials are slow to respond.

Waste is piling up in 194 displacement camps in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province after three humanitarian organizations stopped providing sanitation and water services at the start of the year. As summer approaches, some 200,000 residents fear the spread of disease.

Thirteen years after the Syrian revolution, displacement camps in Idlib’s Atma look increasingly like towns, tents replaced by cement buildings. Has the dream of return been lost?

One year after the February 6 earthquake, tens of thousands of Syrian survivors are still homeless, without enough support to repair and rebuild their homes. Aid workers stress the importance of early recovery to facilitate returns and provide livelihoods.

Residents of Syria’s opposition-held northwest demonstrate in support of Palestinians facing displacement and bombardment in Gaza—an experience many of them share.

Bombings across northern Syria this month—by the Syrian regime and Russia against the HTS-controlled northwest, and by Turkey in the SDF-controlled northeast—have something in common: killing civilians and damaging infrastructure.