Hundreds of Syrians demonstrated again in southern Syria on Friday demanding the fall of the regime, marking a week of protests amid deteriorating living conditions, according to activists and an NGO.
The province of Soueida has been the scene of protests since the government lifted fuel subsidies in mid-August, affecting a population already affected by twelve years of war.
In Bosra, in the province of Deraa, the cradle of the peaceful uprising of 2011 which degenerated into a civil war after the brutal repression of the demonstrations, dozens of inhabitants chanted slogans hostile to President Bashar al-Assad.
“The Syrian revolution continues; our demands from 2011 have not changed,” activist Ahmed al-Moqdad told AFP on the sidelines of the rally.
“We reiterated the principles that we will not renounce: freedom, dignity and unity of Syria,” he added.
In this city controlled by Syrian factions that have reached “reconciliation” agreements with Damascus since 2018, protesters carried banners proclaiming: “Get out, we want to live” and “To remain silent today is to perpetuate tyranny”.
Slogans hostile to Assad were chanted.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) noted the holding of demonstrations in different sectors of the province of Deraa, “reiterating the demands of the revolution based on the fall of the regime and the political transition”.
In 2018, the city of Deraa came almost entirely under regime control after the army deployed in rebel neighborhoods under a truce agreement that gave rebels a choice between laying down their arms or being evacuated. .
In the province of Soueida, stronghold of the Druze minority, hundreds of people demonstrated in the central square of the eponymous city, marking the largest rally since mid-August.
“The people demand the fall of the regime,” chanted the demonstrators, according to videos published by local media.
“The revolution continues,” says a young woman in one of the videos in front of a crowd demanding the fall of the regime.
Soueida province has remained largely unaffected by the country’s bloody conflict.
Recurring protests have taken place there, however, and in December a protester and a policeman were killed there when security forces suppressed a protest.
25/08/2023 22:48:32 – Bosra (Syria) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
