Clashes in Syria between Druze and Bedouin factions and assaults on civilians in the country’s southern Sweida province have killed 1,200 and displaced at least 93,000 people, according to the United Nations.
The violence, exacerbated by Syrian government intervention and Israeli air strikes, has triggered a humanitarian crisis, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday, with widespread disruption to electricity, water and healthcare.
A Sweida city resident said: “All our food spoiled, we had to throw it out. We’re showering in our own sweat. I scraped mould off a carton of yoghurt and fed it to my children. What we need most now is water and electricity.”
While communities in Sweida are suffering, “political obstacles and deep mistrust are holding up humanitarian aid”, HRW deputy Middle East director Adam Coogle said.
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“No matter who controls the territory, humanitarian assistance needs to be allowed in immediately and without interference.”
HRW said: “Most hospitals are out of service due to physical damage, staff shortages, roadblocks and fuel and supply disruptions.”
Displaced families face “growing public health risks, including reports of unburied bodies in residential areas”, it said.
Conditions at the national hospital in Sweda were “catastrophic”, witnesses told HRW. It cited a local journalist who “saw many corpses in the hospital and morgue, including children and entire families”.
HRW said that “armed groups and civilians have been transporting the dead and wounded in private vehicles, while volunteers have documented fatalities”.
This round of violence began on July 12th with heavy fighting between militias “aligned with Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, a spiritual leader of Sweida’s Druze community, and pro-government Bedouin fighters”, HRW said.
After Syrian interior and defence ministry units imposed curfews on July 14th and attempted to restore order, “residents reported looting, home burning, sectarian abuse and summary executions, including of women and children”, HRW said. “Bedouin armed groups and Druze militias have also been implicated in serious abuses.”
When the first Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) convoy entered Sweida on Sunday, the health ministry spokesman said Hijri had barred accompanying government representatives.
The SARC reported on that day assaults on its volunteers, torching of a warehouse, and firing on an ambulance, HRW said. A second, independent SARC convoy was expected on Tuesday.
UN agencies, international humanitarian groups, diplomats and foreign journalists had been barred from entering Sweida, HRW said.
Separately, a Syrian fact-finding committee said on Tuesday that 1,426 people died in March in attacks on security forces and subsequent mass killings of Alawites, but it also said commanders had not given orders for the revenge attacks.
Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa has struggle to stabilise and unify the fragile state eight months after he led a rebel offensive that toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
