How Syria’s continuing food insecurity threatens national and regional stability

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People queue to get bread distributed by a charity initiative in a neighborhood in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on December 2, 2024. (AFP)
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Syria’s political transition post-Assad has fueled the hunger crisis, leaving millions in urgent need of aid. (AFP file)
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Syria’s political transition post-Assad has fueled the hunger crisis, leaving millions in urgent need of aid. (AFP file)
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Updated 02 February 2025
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How Syria’s continuing food insecurity threatens national and regional stability

  • With more than half of Syria’s population facing food insecurity, experts call for reform and regional cooperation to prevent further conflict
  • Assad’s fall brought hope, but hunger has worsened for millions as violence, looting, and war damage disrupt food supplies

LONDON: More than half of Syria’s population faces food insecurity as the country grapples with the aftermath of 13 years of civil war, the abrupt collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime, and a surge of returnees.

Inadequate funding for aid organizations during this political transition risks deepening and prolonging the crisis.

A recent report by the Food Security Cluster, a UN-led coordination group, revealed that 14.5 million people in Syria are food insecure, including 9.1 million facing acute food insecurity and 5.4 million at risk of hunger.

The report, published on Jan. 25, emphasized that Syria’s sudden power shift and ongoing political transition have increased pressure on its fragile food systems, reshaping humanitarian needs.

Rola Dashti, executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, described the current phase in Syria as a “critical juncture,” stressing that the country must either move toward reconstruction and reconciliation or risk falling into deeper chaos.

“The stakes for the country, and for the region, could not be higher,” she said in a January statement.

“Food insecurity is rampant, healthcare systems are crumbling, and entire communities have been uprooted. This is one of the world’s most protracted humanitarian crises, and our findings make clear it could get worse if immediate steps are not taken.”




A boy carries freshly-baked bread as people line up outside a bakery in the Syrian capital Damascus on December 21, 2024. (AFP)

On Dec. 8, a coalition of opposition groups led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham seized control of Syria’s capital Damascus, following a sweeping 12-day offensive that toppled Assad.

And although Assad’s ouster provided some relief to Syrians, it also plunged the country into fresh political and economic uncertainty, with the country deeply fractured and up to 1 million refugees expected to return by June, according to UN figures.

Recent clashes have sparked a new wave of displacement, with some 1.1 million people newly displaced, mainly in Idlib, Aleppo, Homs, and Hama.

The surge in violence since late November has been a major driver of food insecurity, according to the Food Security Cluster’s report. Warehouses and public services have been looted, while damage to agricultural infrastructure has disrupted the planting season.




Syria’s political transition post-Assad has fueled the hunger crisis, leaving millions in urgent need of aid. (AFP file) 

This lawlessness, especially in northeastern and southern Syria, has created logistical challenges, blocked roads, and restricted aid access, severely disrupting food security.

Some 90 percent of Syrians currently live below the poverty line and some 16.7 million need humanitarian assistance, according to the UN.

Without bold reforms and swift international support, these needs are expected to grow, ESCWA warns.

The Food Security Cluster said $560 million is needed to fund a three-month emergency response providing food assistance and livelihood support during Syria’s political transition and uncertainty.

However, funding for aid remains insufficient. Cindy McCain, director of the World Food Programme, has said that some governments are reluctant to increase support for urgent humanitarian needs in Syria under the country’s new interim rulers.

And although the new leadership in Damascus has pledged a radical overhaul of the struggling economy, including privatization and public sector job cuts, it faces enormous challenges.

Western sanctions and more than a decade of conflict have left Syria’s economy in tatters. The country’s gross domestic product has contracted by 64 percent since the beginning of the war in 2011, according to a recent ESCWA report.

The report, released in late January, noted that Syria’s currency lost nearly two-thirds of its value against the US dollar in 2023 alone, driving consumer inflation to an estimated 40.2 percent in 2024.




Syria’s currency lost nearly two-thirds of its value against the US dollar in 2023 alone, driving consumer inflation to an estimated 40.2 percent in 2024. (AFP)

Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, believes the collapse of the Assad regime is largely tied to the failure of Syria’s economy.

“Government pay for officers in the army was $30 a month, and only $10 for enlisted men, which gives one a sense of the terrible need,” he told Arab News.

“The HTS government has increased those government wages by 400 percent, thanks to the largesse of Qatar, but wages remain extremely low.”

In mid-December, Syria’s interim government announced plans to dramatically increase the salaries of public servants. However, this plan involves laying off a third of the state workforce, Reuters reported.

The first wave of layoffs came just weeks after Assad’s ouster. Ministers in the interim government told Reuters that removing “ghost employees” — those who received salaries for doing little or nothing — was part of a crackdown on waste and corruption.




Syria’s interim government announced plans to dramatically increase the salaries of public servants. but the plan involves laying off a third of the state workforce. (AFP)

Landis says the layoffs are likely to worsen the hunger crisis for certain groups.

“Employees of the old regime are quickly being purged, as new employees whose ambitions and loyalties are better aligned with the new government are recruited by HTS,” he said.

“This means that hunger and insecurity is being redistributed to those Syrians who used to be favored by the Assad regime.”

Residents of Damascus and its hinterlands say that while the capital has seen an influx of foreign goods and a drop in prices since Assad’s departure, purchasing power remains low, especially as public servants and many private sector workers have not been paid in two months.

“We have a saying in Syria: a camel costs only one pound, but we don’t have that pound,” Umm Samir, a 55-year-old housekeeper from Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, Rif Dimashq, told Arab News.

“Prices of food have certainly dropped, and there are no shortages,” she said. “But in our area, many have not brought a pound home for almost two months.”

She added: “For example, a bottle of olive oil cost 100,000 Syrian pounds before Dec. 8; now it’s sold for 75,000. A kilogram of sugar was 20,000; now it’s 9,000.”




Blacksmiths work in a forge in the town of Douma, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus. (AFP)

The drop in prices is partly due to a strengthening of the Syrian pound against the US dollar. On Friday, the dollar traded at 9,900 Syrian pounds, down from about 15,000 Syrian pounds before Dec. 8.

Syria expert Landis noted that while “food prices went down a bit once HTS took Damascus, because Turkish and foreign goods began to move freely into Syria without tariffs, bread prices went up.”

He added: “Bread is a major part of the Syrian diet, particularly for the 50 percent of Syrians facing food insecurity.”

Damascus residents told Arab News that a bundle of subsidized bread, which once cost 500 Syrian pounds, has seen its price jump to 4,000 Syrian pounds following Assad’s fall from power.




Syrians stand in queue to buy bread in the town of Binnish in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib. (AFP file)

When many cannot afford this essential food item, the influx of Turkish and Western goods — much more expensive than local products — makes little difference. If anything, it serves as a stark reminder of the struggle many families face to meet their basic needs.

Yusra, a 33-year-old computer engineer from Muhajreen, an upscale neighborhood in central Damascus, said that although three members of her household of six are breadwinners, they still could not afford many food items, such as meat, fruit, and sweets.

“It doesn’t matter that we now have Snickers bars, Ulker cookies, or brie cheese in local supermarkets when most people can’t afford basic things like sugar or apples,” she told Arab News.

“In my family, whenever we have an occasion, be it a birthday or Eid, we have to cut corners to buy cake or meat.




Syrians work at a vegetables market in Aleppo, on December 23, 2024. Aleppo's old city. (AFP)

“My brother works for a private marketing company but has not received his salary for January as the business is struggling.”

But the problem goes beyond families’ inability to meet basic needs. WFP chief McCain called Syria’s hunger crisis a national and regional security issue, particularly during this critical transition period.

“What’s at stake here is not just hunger — and hunger is big enough. But it’s about the future of this country and how it moves forward into this next phase,” she told the Associated Press during her first visit to Syria in mid-January.

On the national level, Syria expert Landis warns that if the interim government led by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa fails to implement economic and political reforms, it will likely face growing opposition.




Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, speaks to the media during a meeting with Qatar's Minister of State Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 23, 2024. (REUTERS)

“Syrians are expecting the new government to jump start the economy, get the US and Western governments to lift sanctions, and to unite the country once again, which will mean that Syria’s oil and gas wells will once again be used by the Damascus government and not the Qamishli government,” he said, referring to the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

“It should be remembered that before 2011, oil and gas revenue provided 50 percent of the government budget. If President Al-Sharaa cannot get the economy back on its feet quickly, he is likely to face growing opposition and Syria is likely to remain turbulent and unstable.”




Farmers work to harvest wheat at a field in Raqa, northeastern Syria, on May 23, 2024. (AFP)

Since early December, protests have erupted across the country, with demands ranging from justice for disappeared activists to calls for improved public services and greater representation for various Syrian sects.

On the regional level, “a poor and hungry Syria will continue to pump out refugees,” Landis said. “All of Syria’s neighbors are counting on Syrian stability and economic growth to entice refugees to return home.”

He added: “If Syria stumbles, the reverberations will be felt throughout the region. The country will remain divided among foreign militaries and a battleground that could easily destabilize its neighbors.”




Caption

The UN warns that unless Syria achieves a stable transition, the hunger crisis will worsen, and reliance on aid will persist. The transition must establish inclusive governance, credible transitional justice, and stronger institutions to build public trust, according to ESCWA’s January report.

The report also states that the country’s stability and recovery depend on regional and international support, including sanctions relief and economic cooperation.

Without political and economic reforms in collaboration with regional and international partners, ESCWA believes Syria risks prolonged instability, further fragmentation, and becoming a haven for cross-border crime.
 

 


Israeli kibbutz says elderly hostage held in Gaza dead

Updated 4 sec ago
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Israeli kibbutz says elderly hostage held in Gaza dead

  • The kibbutz called on the Israeli government and world leaders “to continue acting with determination to bring back all the hostages, both the living and the dead, and not to allow painful stories like Shlomo’s to repeat themselves”

JERUSALEM: An elderly Israeli man taken hostage by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, has been declared dead, a statement from his kibbutz said on Tuesday.
“With heavy hearts, we, the members of the kibbutz, received the news this morning about the murder of our dear friend, Shlomo Mansour, 86 years old, who was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Kissufim during the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023,” the community said of the Iraqi-born Israeli.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Tuesday that the “decision to confirm his death was based on intelligence gathered in recent months.”

Shlomo Mantzur, an Israeli hostage who was kidnapped in the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and announced that he was killed on that same day, by Israel authority today, is pictured in this undated handout photo. (REUTERS)

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X that Mansour had been “murdered in captivity” by Hamas on October 7.
One of the founders of Kibbutz Kissufim, Mansour was kidnapped from a henhouse during Hamas’s attack on southern Israel.
His wife Mazal Mansour, with whom he lived for 60 years, managed to escape the attack. The couple have five children and 12 grandchildren.
The Israeli hostage forum said in a statement that Mansour, born in Baghdad, was a survivor of the Farhud pogrom — a 1941 attack on Iraq’s Jewish community — and immigrated to Israel with his family at 13.
“This is one of the most difficult days in the history of our kibbutz,” the community of Kissufim said in a statement.
“Shlomo was much more than a community member to us — he was a father, grandfather, a true friend and the beating heart of Kissufim.”
“Our hearts are broken that we couldn’t bring him back to us alive.”
The kibbutz called on the Israeli government and world leaders “to continue acting with determination to bring back all the hostages, both the living and the dead, and not to allow painful stories like Shlomo’s to repeat themselves.”
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he and his wife, Sara, “share in the family’s deep mourning.”
“We will not rest and will not be silent until he is returned to a burial in Israel. We will continue to act with determination and without pause until we return all of our hostages — both the living and the fallen,” he said.
A fragile ceasefire reached last month between Hamas and Israel appeared strained on Tuesday, a day after Hamas threatened to postpone the release of Israeli hostages scheduled for Saturday.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump warned that “all hell” would break loose if every Israeli hostage is not released from Gaza within the coming days, a threat Hamas said “further complicates matters.”
The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history, which resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 35 that Israeli officials say are dead.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the war has killed at least 48,208 people in the territory, figures which the UN considers reliable.
 

 


Turkmenistan reaches deal with Turkiye to ship natural gas via Iran

Updated 16 min 32 sec ago
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Turkmenistan reaches deal with Turkiye to ship natural gas via Iran

  • Turkiye imports gas via pipelines from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: Turkmenistan has struck a deal to ship natural gas to Turkiye via Iran, a government daily reported Tuesday.
The official daily Neutral Tyrkmenistan said that Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the chairman of the country’s People’s Council, welcomed the deal in a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Berdymukhamedov said it was a major development in the regional energy cooperation.
Gas supplies under the contract that was signed between the state-run Turkmengas company and Turkiye’s state-owned BOTAS will begin on March 1.
“With this agreement, which we have been working on for many years, we will strengthen the natural gas supply security of our country and our region, while furthering the strategic cooperation between the two countries,” Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in a statement.
Turkiye imports gas via pipelines from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran.
Last year, Turkmenistan signed a contract with Iran for 10 billion cubic meters (353 billion cubic feet) of natural gas to be shipped on to Iraq.
The ex-Soviet Central Asian country relies heavily on the export of its vast natural gas reserves. China is the nation’s main customer for gas and Turkmenistan also is working on a pipeline to supply gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

 


Jordan to take sick Gaza kids as Trump pushes takeover plan

Updated 11 February 2025
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Jordan to take sick Gaza kids as Trump pushes takeover plan

  • Jordan would take in some 2,000 sick children from war-torn Gaza
  • US president called it a 'beautiful gesture' and said he didn’t know about it before the Jordanian monarch’s arrival at the White House

WASHINGTON: Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday told Donald Trump that his country would take in some 2,000 sick children from war-torn Gaza, as the US president pushed his plan to take over the territory and push out Palestinians.
Speaking at the White House, King Abdullah added that Egypt would present a proposal on how countries in the region could “work” with Trump on the plan, despite Arab nations and the Palestinians having rejected it outright.
“I think one of the things that we can do right away is take 2,000 children, cancer children who are in a very ill state, that is possible,” King Abdullah said as Trump welcomed him and Crown Prince Hussein in the Oval Office.
Trump called it a “beautiful gesture” and said he didn’t know about it before the Jordanian monarch’s arrival at the White House.
The US president meanwhile backed down on a suggestion that he could withhold aid for Jordan and Egypt if they refused to take in more than two million Palestinians from Gaza.
“I think we’ll do something. I don’t have to threaten that, I do believe we’re above that,” Trump said.
Trump stunned the world when he announced a proposal last week for the United States to “take over” Gaza, envisioning rebuilding the devastated territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East” — but only after resettling Palestinians elsewhere, with no plan for them ever to return.
Jordan’s King Abdullah was repeatedly pressed by reporters on whether he supported the plan, but said only that Egypt was coming up with a response and that Arab nations would then discuss it at talks in Riyadh.
“The president is looking at Egypt coming to present that plan... (then) we will be in Saudi Arabia to discuss how we should work with the president and with the United States,” King Abdullah said.
“The point is, how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody," he added.


UN experts warn Trump Gaza plan would return world to ‘dark days of colonial conquest’

Updated 11 February 2025
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UN experts warn Trump Gaza plan would return world to ‘dark days of colonial conquest’

  • Call for US to facilitate permanent ceasefire, resume UNRWA funding, and compensate Palestinians for damage caused by US weapons
  • US should pressure Israel to pay for reconstruction and reparations, hold perpetrators of atrocities accountable, and support Palestinian statehood, experts say

NEW YORK: A group of more than 30 independent UN experts on Tuesday denounced threats by US President Donald Trump to “take over” and “own” Gaza, warning that such a move would usher in a new era of “predatory lawlessness.”

Referring to Trump’s suggestion that Gaza’s Palestinian population could be relocated through the use of military force if required, the experts said: “Such blatant violations by a major power would break the global taboo on military aggression and embolden other predatory countries to seize foreign territories, with devastating consequences for peace and human rights globally.”

They added that implementing the US proposal would “shatter the most fundamental rules of the international order and the United Nations Charter since 1945, which the US was instrumental in creating to restore peace after the catastrophic Second World War and Holocaust.

“It would return the world to the dark days of colonial conquest.”

The experts underscored that it was clearly unlawful to invade and seize foreign land by force; to forcibly expel inhabitants; and to deny the Palestinian people their fundamental right to self-determination, which includes keeping Gaza as part of a sovereign Palestinian state.

“Such violations would replace the international rule of law and the stability it brings with the lawless ‘rule of the strongest’.”

The experts include Ben Saul, the special rapporteur on the promotion of human rights while countering terrorism; Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian territories, and George Katrougalos, an independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order.

They said that just as more than 50 years of Israeli occupation of Palestine had failed to bring peace or security to either Israel or Palestine, a US occupation would have the same disastrous outcome, driving endless war, death, and destruction.

The mass deportation of civilians from occupied territories was classified as a war crime under the 1949 Geneva Conventions following the Second World War to prevent the repetition of actions such as Nazi Germany’s forced expulsion of populations from European nations.

“The US proposal would accelerate forced displacement of Palestinians from their lands, which began in the 1947-48 Nakba, and has since included home demolitions, evictions, destruction and theft of natural resources and the criminal building of illegal Israeli colonial settlements,” the experts warned.

During his previous term, Trump unlawfully acknowledged Israel’s illegal annexations of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, actions that have been condemned by the International Court of Justice, the UN General Assembly, the Security Council, and a vast majority of countries.

“If the US president is genuinely concerned for the welfare of Palestinians, the US should broker a lasting ceasefire, resume funding to UNRWA, compensate Palestinians for damage resulting from US weapons and munitions supplied to Israel despite the serious risk of violations of humanitarian law, and end arms transfers. It should also pressure Israel to fund reconstruction and provide reparation for violations, pursue accountability for perpetrators of international crimes, and meaningfully support Palestinian statehood,” they said.

The experts said that if the US president truly cares about the well-being of Palestinians, the US should facilitate a lasting ceasefire, resume funding to UNRWA, compensate Palestinians for the damage caused by US weapons and munitions provided to Israel despite the significant risk of humanitarian law violations, and halt arms transfers.

They added that the US should also urge Israel to finance reconstruction, offer reparations for violations, seek accountability for those responsible for international crimes, and genuinely support Palestinian statehood.

Israeli military action in Gaza has resulted in the deaths of over 48,100 Palestinians and left 110,000 injured, mostly women and children. The attacks have rendered 85 percent of the population, roughly 1.9 million people, homeless, and without access to sufficient food, water, and other basic needs. They have also severely damaged or destroyed most homes, agricultural land, public infrastructure, and caused extensive environmental harm.


Kuwait sends 22nd relief plane to Syria

Updated 11 February 2025
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Kuwait sends 22nd relief plane to Syria

  • Kuwaiti air bridge to deliver aid to Damascus beyond the month of Ramadan
  • 10 tons of food aid brings total relief supply to 591 tons

LONDON: The 22nd Kuwaiti relief plane arrived at Damascus International Airport, delivering essential aid to Syria as part of Kuwaiti efforts to alleviate the Syrian crisis.

An air force plane delivered 10 tons of food aid, which was organized by the Kuwait Red Crescent Society in cooperation with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, the Kuwait News Agency reported late on Monday.

The Kuwait Red Crescent is working with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to deliver food and shelter materials as part of an air bridge planned to operate between Kuwait and Syria beyond the month of Ramadan, which starts in March.

Kuwaiti aid provided to Syria through the air bridge has reached 591 tons of various relief supplies, the KUNA added.