Syria’s Tragedy… A Bottomless Abyss

Women walk near rubble inside the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the southern outskirts of Damascus, Syria November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi
Women walk near rubble inside the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the southern outskirts of Damascus, Syria November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi
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Syria’s Tragedy… A Bottomless Abyss

Women walk near rubble inside the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the southern outskirts of Damascus, Syria November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi
Women walk near rubble inside the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the southern outskirts of Damascus, Syria November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi

Every time we think that the Syrian crisis has hit rock bottom, we discover that we’re wrong. The latest cholera outbreak in the war-torn nation and refugee camps in neighboring countries is yet another evidence that the Syrian crisis is a bottomless abyss.

This was a Western diplomat’s comment after returning from Syria, a country he had visited from time to time in recent years as part of his work as an envoy.

According to the diplomat, years of war in Syria resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, half the population abandoning their homes, and more than seven million IDPs. Two million IDPs in Syria are staying at random camps, while around seven million refugees have sought asylum in neighboring countries.

Moreover, Syria’s infrastructure has sustained severe damage, health services are near non-existent, schools remain shut, and the country is divided into three microstates hosting foreign armies and militias.

“We previously thought that the painful stalemate was the Syrian rock bottom, then the situation sank further with the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic collapse in neighboring Lebanon,” the diplomat noted, adding that the war in Ukraine had also increased the suffering of Syrians in all regions.

“The Ukraine crisis had overshadowed the Syrian crisis before the international community,” they explained.

Syria’s new rock bottom is a dire cholera outbreak. According to the UN, this epidemic is spreading rapidly throughout Syria and Syrian refugee camps, especially in Lebanon. More than 24,000 suspected cholera cases have been reported, infections have been confirmed in all 14 Syrian governorates, and at least 80 people have died.

The UN has raised the alarm, appealing to donors to provide funds for health services. But the latest numbers could have been promising. The money donors promised to deliver at the previous conference was about four billion dollars, of which only a third has been deposited. At best, half of the donations will reach Syria by the end of 2022.

Donor countries are preoccupied with economic crises, collapses, and pledges in the Ukrainian war.

Syria is already forgotten. For the first time, the Brussels Conference on Syria was not held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Also, high-profile political meetings on Syria were not convened.

Even the constitutional committee meeting, which included talks among the Syrian factions in Geneva, was shelved. Moscow had canceled the meeting in protest of the position of Switzerland and the West in Ukraine.

The illusion of a political process with international facilitation faded. The mirage of global sponsorship for the implementation of Resolution 2254 has dissipated.

In the face of US-Western divisions, Ukraine and global economic crises emerge as a priority, leaving no room for significant initiatives in Syria.

The greatest ambition for Syria now lies in small steps here and there. Neighboring countries are looking for steps to stop the Syrian crisis from slipping past borders. They are taking measures to stop drug smuggling, terrorism, and the positioning of militias.

Major powers lowered the ceiling of their Syrian diplomacy, searching for small trade-offs instead.

What can Moscow and Damascus offer if Washington and Brussels agree to increase the share of funds allocated to early recovery projects? What price can be expected if Washington exempts some medical gear from its sanctions list or if a European capital increases the number of visas granted to Syrian diplomats? What guarantees does Damascus provide if some refugees return?

Over ten years, the discourse around enabling “regime change” in Syria shifted to “changing Damascus’ behavior” and “improving the Syrian government’s conduct.”

Talk of dismantling refugee camps shifted toward improving the quality of these camps for the displaced.

As for the reconstruction of Syria, ambitious plans for rebuilding the nation were reduced to repairing a school here and there, renovating rooms in hospitals, extending water networks, or installing faucets in tanks.

Furthermore, UN Security Council permanent members are talking about improving humanitarian aid access across the lines between the three micros-states present in Syria instead of talking about a united Syria and complete sovereignty over borders and airspace.

Military contacts between the major and regional actors are no longer aimed at discussing military withdrawals and exits from Syria. Rather, they are limited to “preventing clashes” between them and finding mechanisms for “coexistence” between rivals.

In the face of such a scene, a cholera outbreak is hardly reaching the bottom line of the Syrian tragedy.



Crops Wither in Sudan as Power Cuts Cripple Irrigation

FILED - 27 August 2024, Sudan, Omdurman: Young people walk along a street marked by destruction in Sudan. Photo: Mudathir Hameed/dpa
FILED - 27 August 2024, Sudan, Omdurman: Young people walk along a street marked by destruction in Sudan. Photo: Mudathir Hameed/dpa
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Crops Wither in Sudan as Power Cuts Cripple Irrigation

FILED - 27 August 2024, Sudan, Omdurman: Young people walk along a street marked by destruction in Sudan. Photo: Mudathir Hameed/dpa
FILED - 27 August 2024, Sudan, Omdurman: Young people walk along a street marked by destruction in Sudan. Photo: Mudathir Hameed/dpa

Hatem Abdelhamid stands amid his once-thriving date palms in northern Sudan, helpless as a prolonged war-driven power outage cripples irrigation, causing devastating crop losses and deepening the country's food crisis.

"I've lost 70 to 75 percent of my crops this year," he said, surveying the dying palms in Tanqasi, a village on the Nile in Sudan's Northern State.

"I'm trying really hard to keep the rest of the crops alive," he told AFP.

Sudan's agricultural sector -- already battered by a two-year conflict and economic crisis -- is now facing another crushing blow from the nationwide power outages.

Since the war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in April 2023, state-run power plants have been repeatedly targeted, suffering severe damage and ultimately leaving farms without water.

Like most Sudanese farms, Abdelhamid's depends on electric-powered irrigation -- but the system has been down "for over two months" due to the blackouts.

Sudan had barely recovered from the devastating 1985 drought and famine when war erupted again in 2023, delivering a fresh blow to the country's agriculture.

Agriculture remains the main source of food and income for 80 percent of the population, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Now in its third year, the conflict has plunged more than half the population into acute food insecurity, with famine already taking hold in at least five areas and millions more at risk across conflict-hit regions in the west, center and south.

The war has also devastated infrastructure, killed tens of thousands of people, and displaced 13 million.

A 2024 joint study by the United Nations Development Programme and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) found that nearly a third of rural households have lost irrigation and water access since the war began.

Without electricity to power his irrigation system, Abdelhamid -- like thousands of farmers across the country -- was forced to rely on diesel-powered pumps.

But with fuel scarce and prices now more than 20 times higher than before the war, even that option is out of reach for many.

"I used to spend 10,000 Sudanese pounds (about four euros according to the black market rate) for irrigation each time," said another farmer, Abdelhalim Ahmed.

"Now it costs me 150,000 pounds (around 60 euros) because there is no electricity," he told AFP.

Ahmed said he has lost three consecutive harvests -- including crops like oranges, onions, tomatoes and dates.

With seeds, fertilizers and fuel now barely available, many farmers say they won't be able to replant for the next cycle.

In April, the FAO warned that "below average rainfall" and ongoing instability were closing the window to prevent further deterioration.

A June study by IFPRI also projected Sudan's overall economic output could shrink by as much as 42 percent if the war continues, with the agricultural sector contracting by more than a third.

"Our analysis shows massive income losses across all households and a sharp rise in poverty, especially in rural areas and among women," said Khalid Siddig, a senior research fellow at IFPRI.