BEIRUT: On Wednesday, protests against the administration of the country grew as a catastrophic economic and financial crisis wracked the war-torn nation. Protesters stormed the local headquarters of the ruling Baath party in a southern Syrian province.
In the anti-government protests that erupted Tuesday night, opposition activists claimed that protestors also partially blocked a motorway connecting the Druze-majority Sweida region to the capital Damascus.
The poor living conditions and rising inflation brought on by President Bashar Assad’s decision to raise public sector salaries and pensions last week are what led to the protests.
The main cities, including Aleppo and Homs, the capital Damascus, and government strongholds along the Mediterranean coast have not yet experienced protests.
But they have also happened in the neighbouring Daraa province, which borders Jordan. Since government forces regained the area in 2018, the region’s economy has gotten worse and criminality has increased.
The protests have received no response from the Syrian government.
After years of violence, corruption and poor management, as well as sanctions imposed by the West over claims that the government was complicit in war crimes and the illegal drug trade, the economy of the nation has been floundering. According to estimates from the UN, about 90% of people are considered to be living in poverty.
The Druze minority lives in the province of Sweida, which has largely kept itself apart from the 13-year-old turmoil in Syria.
According to Rayan Maarouf, Editor-in-Chief of the local activist media group Suwayda24, “These are the largest protests that have taken place in Sweden.” “The majority of people used to be uneasy or neutral, but now they don’t think things will get better without political change.”
The value of the Syrian pound in relation to the dollar dropped to a new record low, from 7,000 at the beginning of 2023 to 15,000 pounds. The dollar was worth 47 pounds at the outset of the war in 2011.