The residents of Aleppo are still in a celebratory mood.
But more than three weeks after it became the first major city to fall to the rebels who went on to oust President Bashar al-Assad, they’re also eager to find out what life in a post-Assad Syria will look like, and what it might mean for them.
Led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), rebels entered the city for the first time in years on 29 November. Russian and Syrian bombs hit back, but Syrian forces collapsed and withdrew quickly: Aleppo was under rebel control within a day or so.
By 8 December, al-Assad had fled the country, and people in Damascus were toppling statues of the dictator. In Aleppo, where the statues of al-Assad fell weeks earlier, many joined the national celebrations as HTS declared victory, hoisting the opposition flag on the city’s historic citadel and singing, cheering, and crying.
But these aren’t the only emotions people have been feeling. They’re also reckoning with what the future might look like in a city that saw more than four years of fierce fighting and a brutal 2012-2016 siege – not to mention what it holds for their country, which has been shattered by 50 years of authoritarian rule and 13 years of civil war.
The first days after rebels advanced on Aleppo were frightening and tense, 28-year-old artist Majd Azouz told The New Humanitarian.
To begin with, Russian jets pounded Idlib – the northwest rebel-controlled province where HTS began its offensive – as well as Aleppo with airstrikes, killing at least 300 people, including dozens of civilians in hospitals, in the worst violence the city had seen since 2016.
While the rebel takeover on the ground was relatively peaceful, many residents were wary of HTS ideology given the group’s past affiliation with al-Qaeda.
But for Azouz, the signs since the overthrow of al-Assad have been promising. “When I first left my house to check on my studio, I came across an HTS fighter,” he said. “I told him I am a civilian, and he said, ‘walk, no one will attack you.’ This reassured me, and since then I have felt safe.”
HTS has now appointed an interim prime minister in Damascus and is pushing for the international community to lift sanctions on Syria and on the group, which is listed by many countries as a terrorist organisation.
It has been governing Idlib through its civilian arm, the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG), since 2017. While those years have been relatively stable, HTS has also faced criticism, with the UK-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reporting that 186 people were forcibly disappeared in HTS prisons in 2023.
Despite adopting some reforms, HTS security forces also responded violently to protests that sprang up across Idlib province in May, after it was revealed that a man had died in their custody.
Still, like Azouz, several other Aleppo residents told The New Humanitarian they were beginning to feel safe again, with the airstrikes now over and HTS appearing to make good on promises to respect the rights of minority groups, even sending armed guards to protect Aleppo’s churches. It had been estimated that 200,000 Christians, including 50,000 Armenians, were living in Aleppo at the start of the war. Local Christian leaders say the community now numbers around 30,000.
“There were no bullets or confrontations like we expected there to be,” said Shahad Sharour, a 35-year-old music teacher. “Even when we see fighters in the streets, they smile at us and reassure us, saying, ‘Don’t be afraid.’
Sharour said that while it may be too early to press the point, Syrians eventually need to think about what role women will play in a new Syrian government: “It is important for women to be involved in leading this transitional phase, because women are equals with men and have a right to lead.”
Obeida Arnaout, an HTS spokesperson, sparked heavy criticism for suggesting women wouldn’t play an active role in all parts of the new government as they aren’t “biologically and psychologically” suited to certain roles, such as working in the ministry of defence.
Services return
During these last weeks of turmoil, people in Aleppo – just as in other parts of Syria – have been stepping in to do jobs like street cleaning that the state had previously handled.
Local aid groups previously based in northwest Syria and Türkiye rushed to provide humanitarian assistance in Idlib and Aleppo after rebels began their offensive. They handed out bread in the streets, as well as drinking water and medical supplies.
Businesses and public services have been sparking back into life in Aleppo: Three days after rebels gained control of the city, bakeries re-opened; and a couple of weeks later, so did schools and universities.
Aleppo University Hospital was forced to close after five people were killed in Russian airstrikes on the building, but it is operating again, along with other hospitals in the city. Electricity and water are intermittently available, much as they were before – Aleppo residents say they get running water for between two to six hours each day.
One of Aleppo’s main water pumping stations, severely damaged by years of conflict, was taken under the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) control, which so far seems not to have interrupted its supply.
People in Aleppo said fruit and vegetables cost less now, which they put down to traders no longer being required to pay the hefty taxes and bribes enforced by al-Assad’s regime. In addition, new trade routes from Türkiye have opened up.
Despite these initial promising signs, there are problems and concerns too.
“We have not yet seen a tangible material improvement,” said Basma al-Najjar, a 31-year-old lawyer. “There are employees who have not received their salaries yet,” she said, referring to vast numbers of government workers who went unpaid last month and who remain uncertain about their next pay cheques. “We know this is a transitional phase and [no one can wave] a magic wand… but the large groups of people who currently live without resources must be taken into consideration.”
Khaled al-Khatib, a spokesperson for the Syrian Civil Defence (known as the White Helmets), said the group – best known for its emergency services – is currently focusing on immediate needs. It first entered Aleppo to help those wounded and killed in bombings, then stepped in to put out fires and provide ambulance services.
Later, he said, “our teams provided a number of important services in the city, such as cleaning the streets, removing rubble, destruction, and remnants of the bombing, in order to restore life to the city. These works are still ongoing.”
Al-Khatib added that the White Helmets are working on launching a “service campaign”, with several other groups, “with the aim of developing and restoring the main streets in Aleppo. We are still making efforts to meet all the city's needs, restore life to normal, and alleviate people's suffering, so that residents get used to the feeling of stability, and so we can remove all traces of war and destruction.”
Fadel Abdulghany, director of the SNHR, said it will take a long time to ensure the smooth running of Syrian institutions and basic services.
“The fall of the criminal dictator Bashar al-Assad is a joy and happiness for almost all Syrians,” he told The New Humanitarian. “We have a lot of work, we have a lot of challenges, but a huge step has been taken now in our fight for democracy.”
The humanitarian challenge
Among the many challenges is Syria’s vast humanitarian crisis, especially as civil infrastructure has been decimated by years of conflict and by a devastating 2023 earthquake in the north.
More than seven million people are internally displaced (many living in camps), plus Syria has an economy that is still in freefall, a hunger crisis, and an active cholera outbreak. People are returning from life as refugees or in displacement only to find that their homes no longer exist.
The UN previously coordinated much of the international aid to Syria, but its delivery system is undergoing a massive change due to the new lines of control. Major donors have to figure out how to deal with terrorist-listed HTS, and sanctions are still in place on doing business in Syria more broadly.
With more than half of the country’s population of 23.5 million people in need of some sort of humanitarian assistance, “there is an urgent need for the international community to scale up aid efforts in coordination with local authorities,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch. “To facilitate an immediate influx of aid, other countries should urgently review sanctions regimes imposed on Syria and consider lifting them given the longstanding evidence that they complicate humanitarian efforts.”
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated in phases from besieged eastern Aleppo in 2016. Many were put on buses to Idlib, and some people fled the country.
Across Aleppo province, whole towns lie mostly empty, in ruins. Many of the surviving exiled residents are talking about going back, but will likely take years to reinstate even the most basic of services and to remove countless lethal landmines that litter towns, villages, and rural areas.
“Indescribable” joy at family reunions
Some people are already returning, if only to see their relatives again.
On 4 December, as the rebels advanced from Aleppo to Hama, Sharour saw her brother again for the first time in 11 years. He had been exiled in Türkiye, but crossed the border to see her as soon as he could.
“When he arrived after these long years, our joy was indescribable,” she said. “We stayed up for two whole days without sleep from the intensity of happiness and excitement.”
Moatasem Bellah Haj Naasan, a 20-year-old student, also recalled the “indescribable” feeling when he saw his uncles – who were living just an hour’s drive away in Idlib – for the first time in 13 years. “I also have brothers in Germany, and from the first moment of liberation they told us that they would return,” he said.
Some families, however, will never be reunited.
With prisoners freed from places like the infamous Sednaya, Abdulghany said his organisation is collecting documentation about those detainees who are still missing. According to the SNHR’s database, over 150,000 men, women, and children were being held in regime detention facilities in August this year.
After the recent releases, he said around 105,000 people remain unaccounted for. “The majority of these individuals have [likely] tragically perished under torture,” he added.
Scores of mass graves have been uncovered across the country since 8 December, in which thousands of people are believed to have been buried – many of whom may never be identified. The graves could hold evidence of war crimes.
The “dark cloud” has gone
For most Syrians, this is a time of joy and relief – and for making new plans for the future. But it is also a moment for many to mourn – some for the first time – the deep pain and grief inflicted through years of living under a brutal regime.
As grief mixes in with joy, the people of Aleppo are continuing to celebrate their hard-won freedoms.
“The dark cloud and the control of injustice have disappeared,” said Sharour. “Today, we can walk in the streets and express our opinions and say what we want without fear. The feeling of joy at this point can never be described.”
“I was one of those who went out in the demonstrations in 2011,” said al-Najjar, recalling the anti-regime protests that al-Assad brutally crushed. “We felt great anger at what happened, but we were forced to live with the situation in order to preserve our lives and the lives of our families.”
“I remember at 4:20am on 8 December, when we heard the rebels had taken the state radio and television building [in Damascus], I woke my father and mother and we prayed together to thank God… I cannot tell you how many tears flowed, or describe the joy we felt in that moment.”
Mahmoud Abo Rass reported from Aleppo, Syria. Melissa Pawson reported from Bristol, England. Edited by Annie Slemrod.
