Syrian government announces Sunday as holiday due to fuel shortage
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – Areas held by Syrian government forces are witnessing, during Sunday that is announced to be a day off due to a severe fuel crisis, an almost non-existent traffic.
The fuel crisis that is afflicting the government-held areas paralyzes traffic and residents at the same time, despite all the repeated promises by the government to bring the crisis to an end.
The government-held areas suffer from an almost complete loss of all kinds of fuel, in addition to power outage that can reach 23 hours a day, due to the “lack of fuel,” according to the government.
The Syrian government-held areas have been witnessing an acute fuel crisis for about 20 days that resulted in an almost non-existed traffic and power outage, as rationing hours of electricity have decreased to unprecedented levels, varying from 18 to 20 hours a day at best.
In addition, the fuel crisis affected distributing bread, as sometimes the distributers find themselves unable to deliver bread to residents due to their inability to afford the cost of fuel.
State institutions and schools are closed, and public transportation is almost non-existed, turning Sunday into an official holiday.
On December 6, the government issued a decision to close state institutions on December 11 and 18 as many employees have been unable to make it to work because public transportation has been badly affected by the crisis.
The decision signals how deep the crisis goes in the cities located in the government-held territory. Such decisions in Syria used to be passed when the country used to be covered by snow in winter. Employees attached to the Syrian government institutions used to go to work even though the country was hardly hit in the early years of the civil war.
On the same day, Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous said in a press release, “The holiday decision came as a result of the deliberations that took place in today’s cabinet meeting, and due to the lack of fuel.”
As the government was always justifying, Arnous said that the reason behind the crisis is the blockade and unilateral coercive economic measures imposed on the country, and due to the conditions that postponed the delivery of oil.”
A few days ago, the Syrian Cabinet decided to reduce the quantities of gasoline granted for cars by 40% till the end of 2022.
On Saturday, government subsidized bread distributers in neighborhoods of Aleppo were unable to deliver bread to residents due to their inability to afford the cost of fuel.