The Struggle for Justice In Aleppo, a 'Feral City'

ALEPPO, Syria — The sun goes down in Aleppo and the city falls into darkness. It is Ramadan; the streets become deserted and only a few lights are visible on the horizon. Most of the buildings lack generators, and electricity comes to houses in dribs and drabs. The sound of sniper shots, mortar explosions and fighter planes flying the sky are now less common than last summer. The fluctuating price of food and challenge of finding gallons of water and clean petrol now represent some of the concerns of the citizens of Aleppo. 

Having consolidated their position in more than half of the city — mainly in the poorest areas — opposition groups seek to provide the people with basic services such as organizing small-scale local government, collecting garbage and offering public transportation. But the ideological differences and the lack of coordination between different factions of the opposition have favored the emergence of smaller groups claiming self-autonomy. 

“The main problem to govern Aleppo is — besides violence — the many groups that control different neighborhoods,” explains Yosef, a former fighter of the Free Syrian Army. There is no umbrella group that coordinates the opposition policies in the industrial capital of Syria. As Middle East analyst Nathaniel L. Rosenblatt has pointed out, the metropolis is fast becoming a “feral city.” With more than two millions inhabitants, Aleppo is now a city “within a state where the government cannot enforce rule of law within the city’s boundaries.” An example of this are the many checkpoints set up by the different factions along the access roads that cross the city.