What comes next for Syria’s White Helmets?

With the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the Syrian Civil Defense deployed to cities where the rescue organization had never operated since its establishment in October 2014: Tartous, Latakia, western Aleppo neighborhoods and beyond. 

Today, 3,300 civil defense volunteers are working in nine Syrian provinces and preparing to deploy to two more. This comes after their work was limited to Idlib and Aleppo provinces for five years, after the ousted regime took control of most of the country with Russian support. 

“We had an idea that the stage of our work being reduced to two provinces was temporary, and that we would go back to working nationally,” Ahmad Yazigi, a member of the Syrian Civil Defense’s board of directors, tells Syria Direct’s Walid al-Nofal. “We built our teams with this in mind.”

The White Helmets, as the Syrian Civil Defense is also called, are best known for war and disaster response. For years, often at great personal cost, its teams have responded to bombings, have pulled the dead and injured from under the rubble and responded to natural disasters such as the February 2023 earthquake.

In a country starting over, the group is now carrying out projects and activities aimed at stability in Syria, now controlled by the Military Operations Department and ruled by a caretaker government appointed by Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Muhammad al-Jolani). 

The challenges ahead as Syria rebuilds are enormous—not least of which is clearing landmines and unexploded munitions littering much of the country. “There are hundreds of thousands of unexploded munitions and mines, which pose a great threat,” Yazigi says. “It will take a long time.” 

How has the Syrian Civil Defense dealt with the new reality in Syria since the regime fell? How has that impacted the organization? 

After the fall of the regime, the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) covers nine Syrian provinces—and we are preparing to work in two more—while in recent years we were limited to Aleppo and Idlib. Redeployment is not new to us. From 2014 to 2018, we did search and rescue in nine provinces, so we are used to working at this level and have no problem with it. What was not normal was being constrained to two provinces. 

The civil defense has an advanced administrative and operational system, covering everything from distribution, supply, leadership and more. This helps us effectively and flexibly manage operations on the ground. The system is there, but it is only with the recent changes that we have reimplemented it across Syria. 

We had an idea that the stage of our work being reduced to two provinces was temporary, and that we would go back to working nationally as a national institution. We built our teams with this in mind, and are now working to take advantage of the abilities of Syrians at home and abroad to strengthen our capabilities and partnerships. 

Our personnel who were displaced from their original areas over the past years—from southern Syria, East Ghouta, Aleppo and beyond—have gone back to serve their families, people and communities. 

We have 3,300 men and women who we have redeployed to nine provinces, and soon 11. The pressure we face is in terms of numbers and capacity, to operate at the level of Syria. We have integrated with the fire brigade that used to be affiliated with the Assad regime, and are managing search and rescue at the national level. 

The White Helmets emerged during the war in Syria. What is your role now? 

What was needed before, in northwestern Syria, is different from what is needed today in the rest of the country. We worked in a fragile, war-torn area with displacement camps. [Around six million people live in northwestern Syria, half of whom are internally displaced.] In a single day [during bombardments], we would respond to 30 or 40 attacks, in addition to people trapped under the rubble, while today we are talking about stable areas. 

Syria is devastated, its infrastructure has collapsed and services are still missing. Still, we are playing our full role as a civilian protection agency and a Syrian institution helping meet people’s needs through programs to remove war remnants as well as protection, education and service projects. 

It isn’t fair to compare the White Helmets to protection agencies elsewhere in the world, which usually work on one aspect: firefighting, rescue and emergency medical services. We have other operations that far exceed firefighting: ambulances, public services and removing war remnants. 

There is no civil defense in the world that is also rebuilding schools, hospitals and cancer centers while paving roads, which is what we are doing. 

It has been more than a month since the regime fell. What have been the biggest challenges? 

In the early days, we faced security and logistics challenges. This is natural. It isn’t possible to deploy in all of Syria overnight, given the need for [establishing] centers and assessing the needs of each area. 

The fire brigade that worked in regime areas was in a very poor state. A large portion of [its facilities] were looted, robbed and burned, and its equipment is old and worn-out. 

Beyond our usual tasks in the camps and paving roads, we are responding to rescue and firefighting operations and continuing our projects to rehabilitate schools and hospitals. 

Our problem today is not with redeploying, but with the increased pressure on our personnel who are responding to more fires, accidents and other operations. 

How are you funded, and are there any challenges related to this currently? 

We continuously work to develop our capabilities in obtaining funding, whether direct funding or applying for grants. We have a full team for grants, reports and communicating with donors. Obtaining funding is tied to capacity-building, transparency, professionalism and the ability to assess community needs and communicate with donors. We work with three types of partners: governments, civil society organizations and donation campaigns. We are always trying to adapt to the situation and challenges that arise. 

There is a long-term capacity-building strategy in all sectors: finance, supply, procurement, media and senior, middle, lower and operational management. We have a comprehensive plan for building up our staff and capacity by developing skills and competencies, benefiting from the current personnel and training instructors in all specialties so they, in turn, can provide administrative and operational training. 

At the senior management level, our team includes five people with doctoral degrees and more than 50 people with master’s degrees. We have also conducted many advanced courses for our personnel.

Many injuries and deaths have been reported, since the regime fell, due to landmines and war remnants. Does the civil defense have a preliminary survey of war remnants across the country? How can they be dealt with? 

All of Syria is contaminated with mines and war remnants. The scale of the military arsenal, mines and war remnants is enormous. There are hundreds of thousands of unexploded munitions and mines, which pose a great threat. 

We have three levels of war-remnant contamination in Syria. The highest level is in areas that were on the lines of contact with the regime. These areas are heavily polluted, since military operations took place there and the regime deliberately contaminated them. Houses, residential buildings and farmland were mined and contain huge quantities of war remnants. These areas have changed as the map of control changed over the past several years. They constitute the larger part of Syria, and cover vast areas of the country. Most victims are injured or killed in these areas. 

The second level is the destroyed areas, areas behind the frontlines that were violently bombed. This includes cities in East Ghouta, eastern Aleppo neighborhoods, Daraa and Deir e-Zor—which contains a horrifying amount of mines according to our preliminary assessments. The last level is the rest of Syria, which contains smaller amounts of war remnants. 

Getting rid of mines takes many years. There are many countries in the world—such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Egypt—that still suffer from this issue after wars that ended years or decades ago. War remnants are a long-term danger that requires international teams, highly trained personnel and long-term work to overcome. 

The civil defense doesn’t remove all types of mines. We remove some mines and unexploded ordnance, but cannot deal with highly complex mines. The Syrian regime used dangerous methods with mines, including those connected to secondary explosives that require capabilities that are not locally available. We need international teams to clear these. 

Given what I have laid out, it is difficult to clear the entire map of Syria. Our country has cities that are entirely destroyed, and mountains of rubble that cannot be [quickly] cleared. It will take a long time. 

What is the future of the civil defense under Syria’s new administration? Will the White Helmets operate under the government like teams in other parts of the world? 

Working under a Syrian government, chosen by the Syrian people, is a settled matter for us. From day one, we have been with the people, as we stated in the Civil Defense Charter in 2014. 

We stand with Syrians and their choices, but for now our focus is on strengthening our capabilities, redeploying and responding. 

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