Fuel crisis | Executive Bureau of Oil Department in regime-held areas reduces fuel allocations in some Syrian provinces
As fuel crisis in regime-held areas is deteriorating, SOHR activists have monitored long lines of cars and people and considerable congestion before fuel stations throughout Syria, as people have to stay for long hours in order to get their allocations of fuel, along with ongoing poor transportation services. Moreover, considerable congestion have been seen in front of bread bakeries due to the acute bread shortage at a time when regime-held areas are experiencing astronomically inflated prices. All these chronic crises have sparked popular anger among the people in regime-held areas.
Furthermore, the Executive Bureau of Oil Department in regime-held areas has reduced daily allocations of petrol and gasoline provided for Hama and Damascus, which has worsened the fuel crisis.
On March 24, SOHR sources reported that areas under the control of the Syrian regime throughout Syria are struggling with catastrophic living conditions, as a starvation is looming. Although the exchange rate of the Syrian pound against the U.S. dollar has lightly improved and now trading at 4,200 Syrian liras to the dollar, after a dollar had approached 5,000 liras in the past few days, the residents in regime-held areas are suffering from the astronomically inflated prices of basic essentials and the acute shortage of bread and fuel, amid regime government’s inability to find workable solutions for critical crises.
We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights renew our appeals to all international organizations to intervene immediately and put an end to the suffering of Syrian people, and not to abandon their responsibility and obligations to finding a lasting solution to the tragedy of millions of Syrians.
On March 17, SOHR sources reported that the successive crises hit civilians in the Syrian regime-held areas in different provinces, where no words can describe their suffering. The humanitarian tragedy and extreme poverty faced by the Syrian people were worsening, with the catastrophic failure by the regime authorities to control the situation and save the collapsed economy.
With the U.S. dollar reaching 4,500 Syrian pounds and the high prices of basic commodities, in light of civilians’ inability to secure their daily living needs, as monthly salaries are not even enough for a few days and widespread unemployment. With all these tragedies, Bashar al-Assad disburses a one-time grant of $10.
The question arises as to whether the Caesar’s Act aggravated the already tragic situation of civilians in the Syrian governorates, or the intransigence of the Syrian regime as tens of thousands of detainees are still in its prisons.
Social media sites are also witnessing popular discontent and anger over every decision by the government of the regime concerning the living situation, which is only exacerbating the situation, as the long queues at bakeries and gas stations are still ongoing, while the civilians are the ultimate losers. Many comments were made on social media expressing the people’s discontent: “We don’t want to eat, we just want the money to afford bread.”