'Conflict freeze' desperately needed in Aleppo
Residents of Aleppo are losing patience with the hardships the war has brought and want an end to the conflict that has ruined their city and their lives.
ALEPPO, Syria — The long stalemated northern front, which has seen little change since a rebel offensive took over half the city of Aleppo and almost the entirety of its countryside over two years ago, seems now to be entering a new phase, one which may either solidify the status quo via a UN-proposed "conflict freeze" or see the regime push on with its increasingly successful campaign to take Aleppo back from the rebels.
Although opinion in the city is divided over the ambiguous "freeze" proposal, there is overwhelming support for a respite — brief or permanent — from the real hardships and dangers of war. To put it all into context, Aleppo is a city under constant bombardment from both warring camps. It suffers from chronic shortages of basic needs, collapsed infrastructure and a breakdown of general law and order. Those problems are especially pronounced in the rebel-held east. To gauge the pulse on the street, Al-Monitor spoke to three residents representing a cross section of the diverse economic and social fabric that makes up the identity of this complex metropolis.
Ahmed is a skilled laborer who once lived in the rebel-held eastern neighborhood of Fardos, a lower working class area before the conflict. He told Al-Monitor that despite all the dangers there, he wants to go back with his family. He said, “We are sick and tired of being treated like beggars and refugees in our own city. I would gladly return and live in my own house and take my family. We don’t care about the barrel bombs. If we die, we die — that will be our fate, and only God decides when it is our time to go.”
When asked why he doesn't return, he said, “I can’t go back because I can’t find work, so I can’t feed my family.” Ahmed faces the same dilemma as many of his neighbors and relatives, who are in similar circumstances. He said, “Many young men joined the rebels not because they believed in their cause, but because they needed money. They left the groups who could not pay salaries and went on to others that could. It was all about the money, and many previously good men stole because their commanders told them it was OK — it was war spoils and by religious decree their right as fighters. I didn’t believe in that, so I refused to join the rebels."
