Daraa

4 04, 2024
  • Clan leaders, notables and commanders with the Syrian military security-affiliated 8th Brigade participate in a clan reconciliation agreement in the northern Daraa countryside town of Mahajja in February. Among the group are Colonel Nasim Abu Ara (far right) and the brigade’s deputy commander, Ali al-Miqdad, known as Ali Bash (center, carrying white flag), 12/2/2024 (Busra Press)

Daraa residents turn to clan reconciliation over the court system

By Walid Al Nofal|2024-04-09T14:19:20+02:00April 4, 2024|

People in Syria’s southern Houran region have long turned to clan reconciliation processes to resolve thorny disputes. The practice increased after 2011, and peaked over the past three years, with residents choosing the clans over the courts with the encouragement of regime legal representatives.

29 03, 2024
  • The Men of Dignity movement, the largest local faction in Suwayda, destroys a seized shipment of narcotics that was set to be smuggled from the southern Syrian province into Jordan, 9/2/2024 (Suwayda 24)

Communities in southern Syria take on the drug trade

By Walid Al Nofal|2024-03-29T18:27:02+01:00March 29, 2024|

Communities and local armed groups in Syria’s southern Suwayda and Daraa provinces are taking the fight against drug traffickers and smugglers into their own hands. With Damascus and Hezbollah profiting from the trade, they face an uphill battle.

12 03, 2024
  • Satellite images reveal how the Tal al-Hara woods, in the northwest of Syria’s southern Daraa province, were all but stripped bare by logging between October 2011 and November 2022. (Google Earth)

Under the axe: The fall of Daraa’s forests and fruit trees

By Walid Al Nofal|2024-03-13T13:34:49+01:00March 12, 2024|

Trees have fallen under the axe in Daraa and across Syria since the spring 2011 revolution, cut for wood to sell or use as an alternative to heating and cooking gas during war, siege and economic crises. Since 2020, however, logging has increased to include fruit-bearing trees on private farmland and within cities.

10 10, 2023
  • Torture survivors, activists and family members of some of Syria’s thousands of forcibly disappeared people rallied outside the Peace Palace in The Hague on Tuesday morning as the International Court of Justice heard oral arguments by Canada and the Netherlands in a landmark case against Syria for state-sponsored torture, 10/10/2023 (Caesar Families Association/Yasmin Mashaan)

Damascus absent as landmark torture case begins at World Court

By Mateo Nelson|2023-10-10T23:13:15+02:00October 10, 2023|

A landmark torture case brought against Syria by Canada and the Netherlands began at the UN’s highest court on Tuesday—with Damascus absent. While it is not a criminal case, torture survivors and family members of Syria’s disappeared say it marks another milestone in their long, slow fight for accountability.

26 07, 2023

In thirsty Daraa, uncontrolled well drilling drives groundwater deeper

By Walid Al Nofal|2024-02-09T14:30:59+01:00July 26, 2023|

Across Daraa province, groundwater is receding deeper into the earth. On top of climate factors like rising temperatures and fluctuating or delayed rainfall, human activity is taking a toll: Thousands of unlicensed wells have been drilled in recent years due to a lack of state oversight and a struggling public water network.

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