Idlib faces new challenges as priorities shift to Damascus

IDLIB — More than two months since the Assad regime fell and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Salvation Government led the formation of a caretaker government in Damascus, state interest in Idlib has declined in favor of the capital, impacting living conditions for residents of the northwestern province that hosts Syria’s largest concentration of internally displaced people. 

At the start of February, the gas cylinder Asala al-Ali used for cooking and heating at her residence in the al-Ikha displacement camp in northern Idlib ran dry. Usually, this was a minor inconvenience, as she could easily buy a replacement, she told Syria Direct. 

This time, al-Ali barely managed to scrape together three kilograms of gas to tide her family over until she finally found a replacement three days later with the help of her brother, who lives in the Atma displacement camps. 

Searching for household gas, waiting for days to obtain a cylinder or waiting in long lines to buy one was a common experience in formerly regime-controlled areas, but not one al-Ali expected in Idlib, she said. 

In the early days after Assad fell on December 8, 2024, Idlib quickly became a destination for tourists and shoppers from other parts of the country. In a province marginalized before the 2011 revolution and mainly associated with displacement and bombardment in the years since, visitors found the fruits of a major economic and urban revival in recent years.

With the opening of Idlib’s markets to the rest of Syria, and the unification of customs tariffs at all crossings under a decision by the General Authority for Land and Maritime Crossings on January 11, prices increased in the northwestern province, even as they fell elsewhere. 

In recent months, services in Idlib have gradually declined as the country’s new government focuses on other parts of the country, leaving residents worried that once-forgotten Idlib could be marginalized once more. 

Shifting prices

Every week since the regime fell, Alaa (a pseudonym), a gas distributor serving the Atma camps in the northern Idlib countryside, transports 30 cylinders to sell in Damascus. He sets aside only five for his customers in Idlib, who register in advance to receive them. “Selling gas in Damascus brings an additional profit of between three and five dollars per cylinder,” he told Syria Direct. 

The official government price for a cylinder of household gas—used across the country and much of the region to fuel stoves and heat homes—is $11.80 (121,000 Syrian pounds (SYP) at the current black market exchange rate of SYP 10,300 to the dollar). In the market, they sell for up to SYP 190,000 ($18.44),

The price of gas varies within a single province, and between provinces, multiple sources told Syria Direct, citing “distributors exploiting a shortage of gas.” 

In Idlib, which still uses Turkish currency, a gas cylinder costs 450 Turkish lira (TRY) (SYP 126,000), close to the official rate. Customers pay as much as SYP 140,000 ($13.60) in the northern Aleppo countryside, and between SYP 180,000 ($17.48) and SYP 200,000 ($19.40) in Damascus. 

For years, gas imported from Turkey covered the needs of Idlib residents, with cylinders sold “at the official price, because people were used to filing complaints when there was any violation, unlike other provinces,” Alaa said. 

Ahmad Suleiman, a spokesperson at the Syrian Ministry of Oil’s derivatives office, denied there was any reduction in the amount of gas supplied to Idlib. Last week, the ministry supplied accredited distributors in the province with 56,000 cylinders, he told Syria Direct. 

However, with reduced government oversight in Idlib and other provinces, many owners of accredited supply centers have diverted a portion of their supply to other provinces for greater profit, as in the case of Alaa. 

Alongside the gas crisis, Idlib residents are struggling with high prices of goods such as chicken meat. One ton of chicken costs $2,100 today, up from $1,300 before the fall of the regime, due to “high demand from other provinces,” Abu Mustafa, a chicken seller in Idlib, told Syria Direct. 

With prices high, sales are slow, Abu Mustafa added. Currently, he sells a daily average of one 25-kilogram cage of chickens at best, while before the regime fell he sold more than 10 cages. 

The opening of Syrian markets to one another, combined with unified customs tariffs, has led to “a state of confusion between opposition areas and areas that were controlled by the former regime,” economist Karam Shaar told Syria Direct. This confusion is deepened by the “use of multiple currencies within Syria.” 

While “allowing the free circulation of any currency without restrictions is a practical short-term solution, relying solely on the Syrian pound is still necessary in the long term,” Shaar said. Price disparities between provinces should also be “addressed as soon as possible,” he added. 

Less staff, growing challenges

On February 2, Ahmad Gharib’s house in Idlib’s Atma displacement camps was robbed, and he immediately went to his local police station to file a report.

While giving his statement to the investigator, the 34-year-old father of four learned the station was short on staff, the number of officers falling from 10 to four after the regime fell, he told Syria Direct. Only two were present when he filed the report, while the other two were out inspecting the site of another robbery.

Short-staffed police stations reflect a larger problem in Idlib’s local institutions. When opposition forces took control of Damascus, many government staff were transferred to other provinces, as Syria Direct’s correspondent observed while visiting institutions in Idlib. Local departments also still use official Salvation Government documents, not those of the transitional government.

“Transferring some Salvation Government staff to other provinces is necessary to work smoothly and serve citizens there,” Idlib Governor Muhammad Abdul Rahman—formerly the Salvation Government’s Minister of Interior—told Syria Direct. Transfers would not cause a vacuum in Idlib, he said, as “a number of employees remained at their posts in all directorates, especially those that provide urgent services.” 

Following his appointment as governor, Abdul Rahman held “several meetings with ministers in Damascus to discuss restructuring government institutions in Idlib,” he said. “The directorates were reinforced with staff to provide services to citizens in the best way.” 

But while Syria’s new government looks to extend services across all the provinces it is now responsible for, existing services—including medical services supported by international organizations—face new threats. 

The United States, the largest donor of foreign aid globally, announced in January that it would freeze assistance for 90 days pending a review. While Washington later clarified the freeze did not include “life-saving” assistance, the medical sector in northwestern Syria—which hosts around six million people, half of whom are displaced—is suffering from a funding shortage at a time when the state still cannot fill in the gap. 

Read more: US funding freeze upends global aid, brings Syrian civil society to a standstill

On February 10, the administration of Idlib’s Bab al-Hawa Hospital announced the halting of support provided by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS). In response, hospital staff held a demonstration, warning that the loss of support endangered the lives of more than 300 cancer patients and disrupted retinal surgery services. They called on the new government to shoulder its responsibilities and pressure humanitarian organizations to restore funding. 

Support for the Atma Primary Healthcare Center has been stopped since the start of the year, Dr. Muhammad Gharibi, its director, told Syria Direct. The center is among more than 100 medical centers, 30 specialized treatment centers, nine central hospitals and more than 25 specialized hospitals that have lost support, according to information Syria Direct obtained from the Idlib Health Directorate. 

Gharibi stressed the need to “provide support to these medical centers,” especially since most internally displaced Syrians in the northwest have not returned to their home communities and rely on these services.

While Idlib residents seek daily solutions to get by, the provincial government aims to find sustainable solutions. One solution is to enable “the return of displaced people to their cities and villages in the countryside by accelerating the delivery of basic services such as electricity, water, health and education,” Abdul Rahman said. “We are doing this within our means through the relevant directorates.” 

The Idlib governorate is also meeting with “international and local humanitarian organizations and receiving foreign delegations to discuss ways to rebuild destroyed areas, until the last tent in Idlib is removed,” he added. 

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.