Sanctions kill - in Syria life has become a living hell

When you are worrying about electricity prices spare a thought for Syrians

If people are thinking about complaining about the situation in their country - please be aware of what Syria is going through right now. I live in Damascus.

1. Electricity: most areas in Damascus and countryside have only had 30 minutes to one hour in last 24 hours. In the rest of Syria especially rural areas no electricity for 3 days at least.

2. Poor performance of the landline phone network and terrestrial internet due to lack of fuel to run generators during the time of power outage and even the towers powered by solar energy almost shut down because of cloudy weather.

3. Most of the large factories reduced their distribution because their vehicles have no fuel and many closed down until next week - crippling many industries and supply chains.

4. Some government institutions could not conduct electronic transactions on Wednesday and Thursday because there was no electricity or internet.

5. Shops and markets throughout Damascus are closing at sunset because there is no fuel for their generators.

6. Private bakeries reduced production of bread because they cannot operate their machines and ovens.

7. Restaurants reduced production and are only serving cold food or barbecue for the same reasons.

8. Diesel and fuel have disappeared even from the black market with 20L of BM fuel now at 200,000 Syrian pounds (average salary is 150,000 per month = $ 27, most are earning less).

9. Most government subsidised fuel stations are closed.

10. Queues at the remaining fuel stations are for 24 hours plus. Quantities that do arrive are not enough for demand. There is a restriction of 30L per month anyway.

11. There is a system of sending a message to car owners to come and get their ration of fuel - now there are delays of three weeks for the SMS to be received. Before it was every few days.

12. There is no gas available (bottles) and if they are available on the black market you are talking 150,000 SYP and above, impossible for most people. The average family will use one bottle per week for cooking etc. The bottles are also very poor quality and dangerous.

13. There is no public transport. The roads are literally empty. This means a huge problem for employees and employers with staff unable to come to work etc.

11 years of devastating war and barbaric sanctions, post-war dissonance and insecure borders - the Caesar sanctions punish any nation that comes to assist Syria. US is occupying, directly and by proxy, and stealing Syrian oil and wheat. Turkey is annexing Syrian territory. END SANCTIONS NOW!

Obviously all of these issues will impact most on the 90% of population that is affected by the war and now poverty-stricken. If someone is sick, for example, they will not be able to call an ambulance (no landline/electricity/net), ambulances are in short supply and without fuel & hospitals also suffering power outage, no fuel for generators and broken equipment that cannot be fixed because of sanctions - prevents import of essential spare parts.

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