The Syrian Civil War is one of the most devastating and deadly conflicts in modern history.
On a street surrounded by destroyed buildings on a cold day, Ahmed recalls the devastation he witnessed during Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
“Eight years ago, I was besieged in the city of Aleppo”he explains. “Evacuations had been blocked several times after a fragile ceasefire. Buses were delayed for four days”.
Ahmed and his relatives were left stranded there, without food and water, narrowly escaping attacks by the Syrian army supported by Russia and Iran.
In 13 years of bloody civil war in Syria, tens of thousands of people have disappeared, hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions of Syrians have become refugees across the world.
Meanwhile, various armed groups that opposed the influence of Russia and Iran have grown in power in the north of the country.
The rebels held the east and south of Aleppo city untilin 2016, when Bashar al-Assad’s forces achieved a major breakthrough thanks to a military offensive supported by Russian shipscapturing the entire city center of Syria’s most populous governorate.
“When pro-government forces retook the city of Aleppo a month later, all the hospitals had been bombed by Syrian and/or Russian air forces”declares the United Nations Human Rights Council in a press release.
“Repeated bombings of hospitals, schools and markets without any warning suggest that the encirclement of the city and targeting of civilian infrastructure was part of a meticulous strategy to force the surrender”estimates Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, head of the UN commission of inquiry on Syria.
One of the deadliest conflicts in modern history
During this time, the rebels also struck the western part, causing the death of many civilians.
“The siege of Aleppo city was characterized by some of the most serious violations of international law that the Commission has documented; these were committed by all parties involved in the conflict”said Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro in March 2017.
On November 30, a blitzkrieg military operation led by the Idlib-based militant group Hayal Tahrir Al-Sham (HTC) and joined by the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army arrived in Aleppo. On December 8, rebel forces seized the capital, Damascus, leading Bashar al-Assad to flee to Russia.
A major change for a country which, since the 1970s, has been ruled by the dynasty of Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad, and which has experienced one of the deadliest conflicts in recent history , before the eyes of the whole world.
Walking through the ruined streets, Ahmed is still moved, years later. Remembering his friends who were killed here, he says: “This is the legacy they left”.
It’s a school day, but dozens of children, many without winter clothes, are waiting to receive food at the very spot that marked the front line between the forces of Bashar al-Assad and the rebels until the evacuation.
Ahmed, 33, who has lived in Azaz, northern Aleppo province, since he was forced to leave his home, says this is the first time he has come back here and seen the extent of the destruction.
Considerable challenges ahead
The fall of Bashar al-Assad, however, did not not marked the end of the fighting in Syria, which continues actively in the north of the country.
The Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates River was damaged and two water stations were suspended, the UN said, during clashes between the US-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces and Army forces. Syrian National Defense Force (FSA) supported by Turkey in recent weeks.
The most of two million inhabitants of Aleppo are thus deprived of water. And if the dam is further damaged, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns that around 40 villages could be flooded.
“Electricity is only available for a few hours at night”explains Sima, 19, a computer engineering student in Aleppo. “We are suffering because we don’t have water, electricity or internet”.
At the age of seven, she stopped going to school for three years because of the war. Today, she has returned to classes, but remains pessimistic about the future: “I speak English and I study engineering, but I won’t be able to find a job”.
A few weeks after the fall of the dictatorial regime of Bashar al-Assad, the challenges ahead remain considerable.
Some 90% of Syrians still live below the poverty lineaccording to various international organizations, including the UN, more than six million people have been internally displaced and as many have become refugees across the world due to the war.