Prices increase and hunger knocks Al-Raqqa’s doors, displacement in areas and excludes others except through smuggling and ISIS runs patrols in the Euphrates River
The hammer of war keep on hitting the Syrian people, who became incapable of everything, even to protect themselves from the death wandering around them and hovering over their heads.
This is one part of the diaries of the residents of Al-Raqqah and its inhabitants, the city which was taken by the “Islamic State” organization as a stronghold after controlling it years ago, while the organization tried to copy itself in the city before the start of the grand battle of Al-Raqqah, by forcing the male civilians to wear “Afghan uniforms”, trying to take cover with its members by the civilians deluding the warplanes with this.
All these precautionary security measures did not provide security to the residents of Al-Raqqah city, and it did not prevent hunger from sneaking into the stomachs of the people in the city and the rest of the besieged parts with it, starting from the eastern, western and northern countryside, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights continued monitoring the diaries of Al- Raqqah city and its neighborhoods, where SOHR monitored the continued rapid increase of food prices, with the decline of the purchasing power of citizens in the city, where the difference has become significant between the purchase power and the price of products. The close of roads due to the siege by the Syria Democratic Forces backed by the elite Arab forces and international coalition forces on Al- Raqqah city was the direct cause for the start of the bad Humanity conditions in the city, which came after the destruction of Al-Raqqah bridges the old and new in the 3rd of February 2017.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the complaints of the citizens and their resentment of this rise of prices, the residents told the Syrian Observatory that this “could lead the city to what is worse, and its consequences my not be good”, this is skyrocketing in prices lacked the oversight of the “Islamic State” organization, which put its weight in the process of isolating the media presence of the city form the world, with the approach of clashes more and more to the walls of the city, accompanied by the escalation of bombing by the International Coalition’s warplanes, which targeted several areas in the province and left hundreds of casualties and injuries during the month of March 2017, and these two things did not prevent the citizens ion Al-Raqqah city from escaping the death in the city, and displace towards its countryside, especially the southern one, which is separated from Al-Raqqah city by the Euphrates River.
Reliable sources informed the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights the escaping and displacing from Al-Raqqah city is carried out by smugglers to the southern bank of the Euphrates River, after paying more than 50 thousand Syria pounds a person, and cross-sources suggested to the observatory that the smugglers are either persons who the organization may have temporarily turned a blind eye on them, or that the network of smugglers that transport the citizens to outside of al-Raqqah city is close to the leaders of the “Islamic State” organization, the sources confirmed that the organization prevents the exit of citizens from Al-Raqqah city while it allows fighters in its ranks to move their families out of the city, but those members cannot leave the fight fronts against the Syria Democratic Forces and move of their families, due to fear of being accused by the organization of “fleeing from Rabat”. The smuggling operations, the increasing pace of displacement and escaping of citizens of the city have pushed the “Islamic State” organization to run patrols in the Euphrates River south of Al-Raqqah city by boats to “prevent the smuggling operations”.
This deteriorating situation which are getting worse by the day, are spreading and stretching in the countryside of Al-Raqqah which are besieged by the Syria Democratic Forces and the US Special Forces who support them and the Elite Arab forces supported by Warplanes of the International Coalition, where the countryside of Al-Raqqah witnessed successive waves of displacement included the exit of hundreds of people from al-Tabaqa city towards the north of Euphrates River, and then they reached areas controlled by Syria Democratic Forces, in addition to movement of displacement of houses near the northern bank of the Euphrates River after the flood of the Euphrates River following the opening of the Balikh channel by the Syria Democratic Forces in order to relieve the pressure of the Euphrates Dam, which led to the submerge of areas of the river banks and agricultural lands nearby it, while the strategic Dam of Euphrates is still off work, because the room of controlling and operating the dam and managing its turbines is out of service, and the where, where the main body of the Euphrates Dam and its turbines are still outside of SDF’s control, while the evaluation results indicate that the primary re-run needs a period between 24 to 48 hours to run the generator, turbines and the hydroelectric station in order to restore the water flow from the dam to the downstream which does to the east, while the maintenance works on the dam need to no less than two weeks as a result of the damage in the dam and due to the disruption of the control and operation room of the dam, and this matter requires the stop of the fight in the vicinity of the dam along with the halt of airstrikes and military operations of the International Coalition, the Syria Democratic Forces and US Special Forces who accompany them in the area.