desplaced_returns – Syria Report

On October 15, pro-regime media reported that 800 displaced families had returned to Maaret Al-Numan, located in the rural Idlib governorate. A ceremony was reportedly held for their return, attended by state and Baath Party officials. But when the ceremony ended, most returning families left the destroyed city, according to a correspondent for The Syria Report in the area, as extensive damage to homes and infrastructure has rendered Maaret Al-Numan uninhabitable.

Maaret Al-Numan is located in the southern part of Idlib and is the governorate’s second-largest city after its eponymous capital. Opposition forces held the city from 2012-2020. During this time, some residents moved to live in regime-held areas in the nearby coastal governorates and Hama. Then in 2020, the regime waged a military campaign on the southern part of Idlib governorate, regaining control over several major cities such as Saraqeb and Maaret Al-Numan. The campaign caused all remaining residents of Maaret Al-Numan to flee north to displacement camps in opposition-held territory.

Since then, the pro-Russia 25th Special Mission Forces Division has controlled the emptied-out city, running it as a military zone because of its proximity to lines of contact with rebel forces in the southern Idlib governorate. The division has barred displaced Maaret Al-Numan residents from returning home to the city, even those living in regime-controlled areas of Syria. As in other areas of rural southern Idlib, work crews contracted by the regime forces have looted homes in Maaret Al-Numan, extracting whatever materials they could recycle, such as iron roofing.

According to The Syria Report’s correspondent, the Idlib governorate had transported displaced Maaret Al-Numan residents who gathered in Al-Assi Square in the city of Hama to their home city to participate in the return ceremony on October 15. Most of the families included Baath Party members and army personnel.

The Idlib governor and Idlib’s Baath Party branch leader participated in the ceremony, which was meant to open what they called a “reception centre for citizens returning to the city of Maaret Al-Numan.” They said the centre was opened to ease the return of the city’s displaced residents. A Syria Report correspondent reported that one of the centre’s tasks is to grant returnees security approvals after settling their security and military conscription statuses.

The governor said those wishing to return and live in the city could visit the reception centre and apply for return. He added that the centre will collect data on those people before approving them return. This data, he said, is necessary to secure essential services for returnees.

During the ceremony on October 15, the governorate utilised heavy machinery to remove rubble and clear public roads under the supervision of the 25th Special Mission Forces Division. However, according to The Syria Report’s correspondent, the day’s rubble removal was merely propaganda to shoot a promotional video and halted immediately afterwards.

A large-scale return of residents to Maaret Al-Numan does not yet appear possible amid the sheer destruction to the city, including to its water, sewage and electrical networks, as well as the remaining rubble and other debris.

On October 19, a government delegation visited the city. The group included the Minister of Local Administration and Environment and the Minister of Public Works and Housing. Official media reported that the delegation viewed the city’s situation and oversaw the restoration of essential services, rubble removal and repair of damaged roads. The delegation reportedly also identified and estimated the scope of the damages and determined the city’s most urgent needs to facilitate the return of displaced residents to their homes.

According to official statements, electricity will likely not return to the city before the end of 2022. Schools must also undergo repairs before reopening. The water network needs testing to find any defects, as facilities were damaged and shut down for long periods due to the fighting.

During the delegation’s visit to Maaret Al-Numan, the governor of Idlib stated that he had sent a memorandum to the council of ministers that included a study on requirements for restoring services such as electricity, water and healthcare to the city. The governor added that the services will be restored once the necessary funding is allocated.

Officials from Baath Party and Idlib governorate held a meeting on October 9 in Hama alongside Maaret Al-Numan private economic actors, to encourage the latter to participate in efforts to restore the city’s infrastructure and public facilities. Afterwards, the “Committee to Facilitate the Return of Maaret Al-Numan Residents,” formed by the Idlib branch of the Baath Party, worked to collect donations of supplies and money to encourage displaced residents of the city to return home. For example, one businessperson donated a heater for each family that wishes to return to Maaret Al-Numan, while another gave SYP 1 million per family. Another person promised to remove rubble from local homes should the owners return.

In the past few years, some Alawite residents displaced by the war from the Al-Waer neighbourhood of Homs have begun to return home. However, their return does not appear to have gone entirely smoothly in light of various sectarian atrocities committed throughout the conflict.

Al-Waer, also known as New Homs, is located in the city’s eastern part and has two main sections. The first section is called the old quarter, also known as Old Al-Waer. Some of its inhabitants are from the Bedouin tribes. The second, more recent expansion has villas, residential towers, apartment blocks, and many government departments and institutions. In general, most Al-Waer residents are middle-class professionals, including merchants, lawyers, and doctors, as well as some judges and senior state and public sector employees. Most residents before 2011 were Sunni Muslims, with sizeable Alawite, Christian and Ismaili minorities.

Al-Waer remained relatively neutral when the Syrian revolution began in 2011, with relations between the various sects still normal. However, regime military operations in 2012 on the nearby historic neighbourhoods of Homs displaced tens of thousands of residents to Al-Waer. Meanwhile, most of the neighbourhood’s Alawite residents were displaced at this time. The regime enforced a punishing siege on Al-Waer in 2013 and waged multiple attacks on it using artillery shells and rockets.

Then, in May 2014, rebel fighters withdrew from Old Homs, some of them moving into Al-Waer and settling there. During this period, the neighbourhood faced airstrikes and artillery fire from regime forces. There were also frequent infiltrations and clashes instigated by pro-regime militias from the neighbouring Shiite village of Al-Mazraeh. Various sectarian acts and violations were carried out during this time. Meanwhile, a large portion of the neighbourhood’s Sunni residents was displaced to nearby areas still under regime control. In March 2017, regime and opposition forces agreed to allow opposition fighters to leave Al-Waer for rebel-held parts of northern Syria in exchange for gradually lifting the siege.

As the violence declined, displaced Sunni residents began returning to Al-Waer. Only recently did some Alawite families also begin to return on an individual basis, though some of them have not been welcomed by their former neighbours. As a result, some Alawite families prefer to sell or lease their properties in Al-Waer instead of moving back.

Abu Ali, a retired Alawite engineer and longtime leftist opponent of the regime lived most of his life in a house he owns in Al-Waer. He decided to leave the neighbourhood after the murder of a well-known local Alawite lawyer in 2013, which he described it as having sectarian motives. According to Abu Ali, the murder pushed many other Alawite residents like him to leave Al-Waer.

When tensions in Homs calmed down, Abu Ali decided to return to check on his house. Abu Ali didn’t notice any changes to the house despite having been gone for years, he told The Syria Report. However, the neighbourhood had changed, and his neighbour was no longer welcoming towards him. He said he received advice from friends not to return home due to potential reprisals against Alawite residents. As a result, Abu Ali decided to lease his house. Here again, he was surprised that nobody wanted to rent the home due to what he called “sectarian reasons”, as the neighbourhood had become inhabited chiefly by Sunni residents since the war. One Sunni friend of Abu Ali suggested to him that he lease the house through power of attorney, so this is the route he ended up taking.

Meanwhile, Haidar, a young former Alawite resident of Al-Waer, lived in displacement for years before recently considering returning home. Haidar said he returned to find his home as he had left it, and his neighbours were kind to him and had kept his belongings safe in their houses. Still, in the end, Haider chose to lease his house, preferring not to move back home in the meantime.

One Alawite family did decide to return to the neighbourhood after years away, to one of Al-Waer’s residential towers. They had received warnings from relatives and friends not to move back home, yet without any other option for housing, they decided to take the risk anyway.

Nidal and his wife Riham are Alawites from the Syrian coastal region. They recently moved to Homs after Nidal got a job working for a humanitarian relief NGO and decided to buy a house in Al-Waer. According to them, on their second visit to the house, they found a paper on their car parked below the building that read: “If you want to live in Al-Waer, live in Al-Mazraeh.” Al-Mazraeh is a predominantly Shiite village just next to Al-Waer, and was home to several pro-regime militias that fought against the opposition in the neighbourhood. A neighbour later told the couple it was best for them to move out of the building.

Posts

Have Displaced Residents Returned to Maaret Al-Numan?

Alawite Residents Make a Difficult Return to Homs’ Al-Waer Neighbourhood