Abd Almajed Alkarh

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.

Cracks, soil displacement and flooding due to the February 6 earthquake severely damaged farmland along a 55-kilometer stretch of the Orontes River in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, wiping out farmers’ crops.

On the twelfth anniversary of the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, “everything is different on the ground from what it was the first year,” its course far from the aspirations of those who took part.

Racing against time, civilian survivors of the earthquake in northwestern Syria helped search through the rubble, bury the dead and care for the living this week, driven by feelings of responsibility for their community and the lack of an immediate international response.

Residents of al-Tah camp, an informal settlement named for the south Idlib village its residents fled, have lived without electricity for four years. Solar panels are too expensive, and diesel generators are a fire hazard.

Amid a historic drought, dozens of new wells are being drilled across northwest Syria to meet a rising demand for water. But the overpumped water table is dropping, while farmers struggle with skyrocketing costs and decreasing water quality.

Wheat farmers in northwestern Syria reaped a “good” harvest this year, but not enough to fully sustain the 4 million people living in the area.