Syrian President Doubles Public Sector Wages as National Currency Spirals Downwards

A shopkeeper waits for customers in Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 15, 2022. (AP)
A shopkeeper waits for customers in Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 15, 2022. (AP)
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Syrian President Doubles Public Sector Wages as National Currency Spirals Downwards

A shopkeeper waits for customers in Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 15, 2022. (AP)
A shopkeeper waits for customers in Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 15, 2022. (AP)

Syria’s president early Wednesday doubled public sector wages and pensions as the war-torn country’s national currency spiraled further downwards, reaching a new low for the year.

President Bashar Assad issued the two decrees just before midnight Tuesday as the Syrian pound’s value against the U.S. dollar declined to a new all-time low, down from 7,000 at the beginning of 2023 to 15,000 pounds to the greenback. At the start of the conflict in 2011, the dollar was trading at 47 pounds.

For over a year, Damascus has been restructuring its program of subsidies for gasoline, diesel for heating, and bread. At the launch of the restructure in February last year, Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous said the move to scale back fuel subsidies would allow the program to target the poorest families more effectively as well as reducing the Syrian state’s deficit.

Though wheat and bread subsidies have not been affected, the move has sparked rare protests in the country, as families struggle to cope with skyrocketing inflation. Syria hiked fuel prices Wednesday, soon after Assad’s decree, further rolling back state subsidies.

“The national economy is in a clear state of instability, most notably rapid rise of the currency exchange rate,” Arnous told Syria’s parliament in a speech late last month, warning that financing government spending through debt and borrowing from the central bank is not sustainable.

Syria’s last wage hike was in December 2021, where Assad raised civil service salaries by 30%.

The increase in wages might be an immediate relief for Syrians, but would be temporary at best as its economic situation continues to worsen, Sam Heller, fellow at New York-based think tank Century International, told The Associated Press.

“It seems likely to fuel inflation and thus worsen the continued depreciation of Syria’s currency,” he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked war monitoring group based in Britain, said that hours after the decree was issued, fuel and produce prices increased, as public discontent over the dire economic situation worsens.

Syria's currency has been depreciating since 2019, further worsened by neighboring Lebanon's economic meltdown and Covid-19. However, the recent wage hike and a massive government payout to this summer's wheat harvest have increased the amount of money circulating in the market.

“This (wage) increase is all but wiped out following the increases in fuel prices and recent depreciation in the Syrian pound,” Karam Shaar, nonresident senior fellow at Washington-based think tank the Newlines Institute, told the AP. “(It) will feed into local (market) prices in a month or two fully.”

Syria’s uprising turned-civil war, now in its 13th year, and Western-led sanctions have pulverized the country’s economy. In February a deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake further devastated its already damaged homes, water, and electricity infrastructure, especially in the ruined city of Aleppo. Experts say that the Syrian government’s rampant corruption and mismanagement of public funds have worsened matters.

The United Nations estimates that 90% of Syrians in government-held areas live in poverty. More than half the population — some 12 million people — struggle to put food on the table, the UN estimates.

The figure is similar for a northwestern enclave still held by the opposition.



Sudan's RSF, Allies Sign Charter for Rival Government

The Sudan war has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world's worst hunger and displacement crises - AFP
The Sudan war has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world's worst hunger and displacement crises - AFP
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Sudan's RSF, Allies Sign Charter for Rival Government

The Sudan war has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world's worst hunger and displacement crises - AFP
The Sudan war has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world's worst hunger and displacement crises - AFP

Sudan's Rapid Support Forces and its allies have agreed to form a parallel government, they said Sunday, despite warnings such a move could further fragment the war-ravaged country.

"The charter has been signed," Najm al-Din Drisa, spokesman of the United Civil Forces, one of the signatories, told AFP.

The parties to the agreement, inked behind closed doors in Nairobi, said the charter establishes a "government of peace and unity" in rebel-controlled areas of the northeast African country.

The move comes nearly two years into a devastating war with the regular army that has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.
Among those who agreed to it was a faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, which controls parts of the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states in the country's south.

Abdel Rahim Daglo, deputy and brother of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo -- who was notably absent -- also signed.

The charter, seen by AFP, calls for "a secular, democratic, decentralized state based on freedom, equality, and justice, without bias toward any cultural, ethnic, religious, or regional identity".

It also outlines plans for a "new, unified, professional, national army" with a new military doctrine that "reflects the diversity and plurality characterizing the Sudanese state".

The proposed government aims to end the war, ensure unhindered humanitarian aid and integrate armed groups into a single, national force.

The war, originally triggered by disputes over integrating the RSF into the military, has killed tens of thousands, with both sides accused of atrocities.

Last month, the US determined the RSF had committed genocide in the western region of Darfur.

The conflict has torn the country in two, with the army controlling the north and east and the RSF holding nearly all of Darfur and swathes of the south.

The army is currently on the verge of recapturing the capital Khartoum, after surging through central Sudan and regaining territory this year.

In its alliance with the SPLM-N, the RSF side now controls more of the south and has border access to Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Ethiopia.

A spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres warned the move could "increase the fragmentation of the country and risk making this crisis even worse".

But the charter's signatories denied any intentions to divide the country.

Alaa El-Din Nuqd, a signatory representing professional unions, said the proposed government would benefit people in RSF-held areas "who have been cut off from essential services".

Nuqd said the charter was a step toward "protecting the dignity" of war-hit civilians.

Analysts say the move is aimed at strengthening the RSF after their recent battlefield setbacks.

Sudanese political analyst Kholood Khair said the RSF's ultimate goals were to acquire an air force, facilitate humanitarian aid to areas under its control and secure a stronger negotiation position.

"They want to go into mediations as a government, not a militia," she told AFP.

However, any arms sales to the potential government would still be in violation of a Darfur embargo which the United Nations has recommended expanding to cover all of Sudan.