Caught in the Middle - Ordinary Civilians in Syria (January 2013)

Protests against the regime of Syrian president, Bashar Assad, erupted in March 2011. Although initially peaceful, they were violently repressed by the Syrian army and police. In response to being ordered to shoot unarmed civilians, large numbers of soldiers and police deserted and formed the core of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which was soon joined by civilian volunteers. Since early 2012 the protest movement has escalated into an armed uprising that many consider to have become a civil war. Sustained fighting is ongoing throughout Syria between government troops and allied militias and the Free Syrian Army as well as other anti-regime groups, some of which include foreign jihadists. Whichever side civilians support, they have long borne the brunt of a conflict they did not choose and that no-one seems capable of stopping. Hundreds of thousands have fled the country, creating large refugee populations in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Those who have stayed have no food, no water, no electricity. Sanitation systems have broken down and piles and piles of uncollected waste lying everywhere. Diseases are spreading among people whose immune systems have been weakened by hunger. Tuberculosis is ravaging some neighbourhoods, and there have been hundreds of cases of leishmaniasis, a skin disease transmitted by sand flies. Factories and businesses have ground to a halt. Jobs are almost nonexistent. Fresh meat and groceries are available, but prices have inflated so much that is beyond the means of people who have not worked for such a long period. People’s savings are exhausted and whatever they could sell is sold. In Syria today, there are no easy solutions. On one hand, the regime can no longer hold its control on northern cities, while on the other hand, rebel fighters are still not fit to provide the population with their basic needs. War profiteers have made the situation even worse. The long-term psychological damage on an entire generation of Syrians has yet to be played out. If there is no immediate action the world will watch a horrifying humanitarian crisis in one of the oldest civilizations.