DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – The Syrian capital Damascus has recently witnessed an increase in theft, something attributed by the residents to the living crises and economic conditions that the country is going through in light of the government deficit.
Social media pages were filled with posts about victims of theft amid the government’s inability to curb the incidents.
Residents in Damascus held government security agencies responsible for these incidents, in addition to their responsibility for the living crises and economic conditions that their areas suffer from.
A few days ago, the owner of a gold-selling shop in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood in the city center of Damascus posted a video footage of a young man and a woman who had entered the shop and tried to steal from it.
The footage posted on February 9 shows that a young man and a girl entered the shop in broad daylight as customers coming to buy some jewelry and gold coins.
A few moments later, the young man pulled out an iron rod that he had hidden in a bag he was carrying and hit the owner of the shop, while the girl went out to wait outside the store. After the shop owner resisted, the thieves fled without being able to achieve their goal, according to the clip.
The footage showed the young man wearing a face mask, while the girl’s face was exposed in the camera. However, the government police were unable to arrest and identify the two thieves.
“A gang in the Rukn al-Din neighborhood accused of stealing cars has been arrested,” the Syrian government’s Ministry of Interior posted on its Facebook account on February 12.
“The frequent incidents of theft are due to poor living conditions of the people in light of high cost and absence of relief organizations,” Rabi’e al-Nabulsi, a student in the Psychology Department at Damascus University, told North Press.
“These incidents also result in crimes such as murder, violence, and suicide, and this is what we are witnessing in the Syrian governorates as a whole,” al-Nablusi stated.
The Criminal Security Department in the Salhiya neighborhood in Damascus recorded about 5,000 cases of theft during the first half of 2020, media sources reported.
All of these thefts were of mobile phones and handbags and took place in the most crowded places in al-Baramkeh and al-Ra’is Bridge.
Earlier, in statements to the pro-government al-Watan newspaper, Walid Abdelli, head of the Criminal Security Department, announced that the repercussions of the economic crisis increased the number of “theft and fraud crimes.”
“The most common crimes committed in Damascus are those related to the economic and living situations caused by the collapse of the Syrian pound and the lack of job opportunities,” he added.
On Saturday, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) announced that 12.4 million people in Syria are struggling to find enough food.
The report confirmed that 9.3 million of the Syrian population are now food insecure.