TEL ABYAD, Syria (North Press) – Khalil’s family looks for firewood and old shoes to heat water and cook amid scarcity and high prices of fuel.
Khalil al-Alewi, 40, who lives in the western countryside of Tel Abyad city in northern Syria, suffers – just like anyone who resides in this region – from extremely difficult living conditions amid rare job opportunities and high prices of bread and fuel.
He told North Press via WhatsApp that they collect old shoes to set a fire. “We collect everything flammable so we could cook our food and provide heat for our children in this freezing weather,” he added.
Al-Alewi is unable to secure heating oil for his wife and eight children, as a 220-liter barrel of heating oil costs more than 1 million SYP ($140).
In October 2019, Turkish forces and their affiliated armed opposition factions, also known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), launched a military operation against the cites of Tel Abyad and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), leading to the displacement of around 300.000 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Both cites repeatedly witness demonstrations as a result of unemployment, deteriorating living conditions and security chaos. At the beginning of 2022, hundreds of people from Tel Abyad protested against bad living conditions and the corruption of the city’s Civil Council, affiliated with Turkey.
The protesters raised placards that read, “No to hunger, no to monopoly, we are under the mercy of mafias.”
Unbelievable High Prices
Al-Alewi’s daily wage does not surpass 10.000 SYP and he finds difficulty securing basic needs of life for his family, especially since his farmland is mainly rain-fed.
Owing to high prices of fuel and drought, al-Alewi cannot depend on power generators to extract groundwater nor can he afford buying the basic products a rainfed land needs.
For the last two years, farmers with rainfed lands have suffered from drought due to severe lack of rain, incurring them heavy losses, and especially since most of them depend on their lands as their only source of living.
Just like al-Alewi, Murad al-Assaf, 47, is also perturbed about the hard living conditions and the lack of fuel and its skyrocketing prices.
In the winter, residents of Tel Abyad need about six 220-liter barrels of heating oil to be able to shield themselves from the harsh cold, but each barrel costs more than 1 million SYP, which is a lot considering the people’s low purchasing power.
A liter of moderate-quality gasoline costs 6.500 SYP, but a liter of excellent-quality is estimated at 7.500 SYP.
Al-Assaf says he is unable to secure the basic needs for his seven-member family, as he suffers from back problems which partially deprived him of being able to work. His eldest son is still 15 years old and cannot provide for the family.
Despite his back problems, the man works as a day laborer in exchange for a wage of 15.000 SYP. Furthermore, his work is limited to the harvest season.
Bread prices doubled
Like the other residents, Anad al-Shawakh, 53, sends his children to collect wood and plastic to be used in heating and cooking.
Residents of Tel Abyad tend to limit their use of firewood by using hand-made fire stove (Wawi) which they use it for cooking, heating water and other things.
”Fuel is expensive, and the local council buy crops at low prices and sell it for dealers close to it. Cotton farmers sold their crops for less than $500 per ton,” al-Shawakh said.
He says bread is too expensive and hard to secure. The man buys five loaves of bread for 1.000 SYP, which is not enough for his family of nine, so he buys wheat and grinds it to make bread at home.
Wheat is monopolized in this region by dealers who have close connections with some SNA leaders. The latter export it to Turkey, causing a wheat shortage in the region, the man noted.
Last year, dealers bought one ton of wheat from farmers for $300 and sold it for $550. As for barley, they purchased each ton for $330 and sold it for $600.
Al-Shawakh complains about the low wages, which do not exceed 10.000 SYP. He adds that the majority of day laborers work for the SNA leaders, in light of the lack of factories and facilities.
For fear of facing the fate of Mo’ataz, a young man who was killed by an SNA leader after demanding his wage, he prefers to stay unemployed rather than work for them.