It’s not only the Syrian public that’s getting used to a new political landscape after a coalition of opposition rebels launched a surprise offensive that toppled former president Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule in less than two weeks.
International aid agencies — well used to navigating the intricacies of civil war, regional disputes and regime change – are also trying to decipher the intentions of Syria’s new leadership as they try to keep humanitarian help flowing in a country where more than half the population relies on some form of aid.
“Nobody knew it was going to happen this fast and this quickly,” said Kenn Crossley, the World Food Program’s (WFP) country director and representative for Syria.
“But once the initial transition in Aleppo had happened, it was very, very clear to see the pattern was shaping up very quickly.”
It took opposition forces just 11 days — beginning late last month, when they captured Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city — to reach the capital, Damascus, on Sunday and overthrow Assad. Humanitarian groups say Assad’s forces killed more than 300,000 opponents and imprisoned thousands more in the civil war that broke out after the Arab Spring protests of 2011.
A Syrian man pushes his bicycle in front of a damaged building in the town of Harasta, east of Damascus, on Thursday. Civil war broke out in Syria after the Arab Spring protests of 2011. On Sunday, the Assad regime was overthrown after 24 years in power. (Omar Sanadiki/The Associated Press)
Crossley, a Canadian who has been in the post for two years, was speaking to CBC News at the WFP’s offices, located, along with other United Nations agencies, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus.
It’s where rebel soldiers reportedly brought former Syrian prime minister Mohammed Ghazi al-Jalali for discussions over a transition of power after Assad fled the capital and was granted asylum in Russia.
The new Syrian flag — now bearing three stars, chosen by the country’s opposition groups — is posted on either side of the hotel’s glass entrance doors, and there is a clear layer of added security on top of the hotel’s usual staffing.
WATCH | UN’s World Food Program prepared for whatever happens in Syria:
Pressure on aid groups brings calls for funding
Crossley said opposition messages had been transmitted early on that humanitarian workers would be protected.
“So we didn’t know who, we didn’t know when, we didn’t exactly know what, but we knew there would be some changes coming,” he said.
“We had been offered assurances that if and when change comes, not to panic.”
WATCH | Syrian rebels told aid groups that workers would be protected, WFP official says:
The UN estimates that 16.7 million Syrians, more than 70 per cent of the country’s population, have been in need of some form of assistance in 2024. The WFP has just launched an urgent appeal for funding to provide aid for up to 2.8 million displaced and vulnerable people in the country.
Funding cuts — coupled with the return of some 500,000 people, mainly Syrians, fleeing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon, where they’d sought refuge from Syria’s civil war — have added to the pressure.
The insecurity that came in the early days of the Assad regime’s fall also brought widespread looting of WFP warehouses. Fighting in various parts of the country also meant aid convoys couldn’t move safely.
“So these were undisciplined entities, men with guns,” Crossley said. “You don’t know if they were associated with any particular group, but a lot of men with a lot of guns. And they looted our warehouses quite systematically.”
Crossley said parts of northeastern Syria, where Turkish-backed opposition groups have been battling Kurdish forces, are a different challenge.
The WFP has offices in every governate in Syria, and Crossley said that enabled contact with the opposition forces as they moved.
“We could work with local non-governmental organizations establishing technical contact very, very quickly with new entities that were coming into town, new authorities coming into town, to let them know who we were [and] what we did.”
WATCH | Aid agencies faced looting of warehouses, safety issues during fighting:
Uncertainty about what future holds
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, leader of the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and his new appointees — including a transitional prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir — are working hard to project an image of organized good governance, even in these early days.
Their approach to aid agencies on the ground certainly points to a planned strategy.
Those Syrians who say they’re willing to give al-Golani a chance to make good on his promises often point to his approach governing opposition strongholds in the north and the manner of the rebels’ offensive.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, leader of the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), speaks at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on Sunday. Despite being designated a terrorist organization by many countries, there is hope in Syria that HTS and its new appointees will practise good governance. (Omar Albam/The Associated Press)
“Idlib was very well organized,” said Mahmoud Sayed Hasan outside the Hamidiyeh covered market in Damascus. “Then they entered Aleppo, later Damascus. It was also well organized. And this is what we hope for. A better country.”
But HTS, designated a terrorist organization by many Western countries, including Canada and the U.S., is also accused of enforcing order with an iron glove. And the widespread jubilation witnessed across Syria over the exit of a brutal dictator doesn’t mean there aren’t worries about the future — be it the intent of the country’s new leaders or the possibility of war breaking out between disparate parties trying to govern.
Crossley said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the future.
“There’s a lot of political negotiations still underway. There’s every opportunity that those things could go badly and there’s every opportunity that those things could go well. I’m reserving judgment, but I’m trying to be ready for both scenarios.”