Protests erupted for a second straight day in the southern Syrian province of Suweida on Monday with dozens of people calling for the ouster of President Bashar Assad and denouncing the deteriorating living and economic conditions in the country.
Local sources said the demonstrations also demanded the withdrawal of Iran and Russian forces from Syria and chanted for the overthrow of the ruling regime.
Protests had broken out on Sunday over the collapse of the Syrian pound, with the people blaming Assad and the regime for the crisis.
The Suweida 24 network reported that the regime had sent military and security reinforcements to the province, but activists said they did not intervene to disperse the protest.
After nine years of war, Syria is in the thick of an economic crisis compounded by a coronavirus lockdown and a dollar liquidity crunch in neighboring Lebanon.
The Syrian pound has hit record lows against the dollar amid widespread corruption and leading to a spike in living costs. Authorities have done little to address the crisis, sparking the people’s ire.
Some stores, including pharmacies, have been forced to turn away customers and close due to the fluctuation of prices. The cost of food and medicine has risen four and fivefold in recent days, leaving many families unable to make ends meet.
Analysts said concerns over the June 17 implementation of the US Caesar Act, which aims to sanction foreign persons who assist the Syrian government or help in post-war reconstruction, also contributed to the de facto devaluation.
Abou Ziad, a resident of the western Suweida countryside, said the Syrian pound was trading at 2,600 to the dollar on the black market, its highest rate since the eruption of the conflict.
He said the fluctuation has led to a hike in food goods. Vegetable oil now sells at 3,500 pounds, when it was previously sold at 1,000 pounds. A kilogram of sugar now costs 1,800 pounds, its price tripling from 600 pounds. Milk, meat, poultry, cleaning products and other essential goods have all doubled and tripled in price.
Abou Jihad, a public employee who has four mouths to feed, said the living conditions were “intolerable”.
“Salaries only last three days” with such price hikes, he lamented. “The corrupt people are the ones who are benefitting the most in Syria. They have reaped billions while the people now live in poverty.”
Heiko Wimmen, Syria project director at the conflict tracker Crisis Group, said that with the Caesar Act coming into force, "doing business with Syria will become even more difficult and risky".
Both analysts said the fall from grace of top business tycoon Rami Makhlouf despite being a cousin of the president was also affecting confidence.
"The Makhlouf saga is spooking the rich," Wimmen said, according to AFP.
After the Damascus regime froze assets of the head of the country's largest mobile phone operator and slapped a travel ban on him, the wealthy feel "nobody is safe", he said.
Most of Syria's population lives in poverty, according to the United Nations, and food prices have doubled over the past year.
The UN food agency's Jessica Lawson said any further depreciation risked increasing the cost of imported basic food items such as rice, pasta and lentils.
"These price increases risk pushing even more people into hunger, poverty and food insecurity as Syrians' purchasing power continues to erode," the World Food Program spokeswoman said.
