By Neelam Rahim

Hassan Hammoud, aged 46, fled Kafr Nabel in southern Idlib province in 2019 as government forces captured opposition-held areas in Syria’s northwest.

He left behind a house he had built some years earlier and now lives in an exceeding displacement camp near the Turkish border, where he’s employed as a daily labourer to look after his seven children and his niece.

Hammoud’s life is hard; he relies on loans for almost half his monthly expenses and struggles to address abysmal living conditions and cuts to humanitarian aid. But what he has recently discovered about his old home, left behind in Kafr Nabel, upsets him the most.

“I discovered my roof was stolen,” After hearing from friends and residents that Syrian government forces had looted abandoned homes, Hammoud had been gazing at Google Maps on his phone to look at his old neighbourhood.

“Then an acquaintance of mine who lapsed the realm sent me an image which confirmed everything,” Hammoud said, his voice trembling. “It makes my blood boil.”

And Hammoud said he wasn’t the sole one with a missing roof.

“I don’t think I used to be personally targeted; they looted the complete neighbourhood!”

Displaced Syrians who fled southern Idlib and Hama province over the past four years, together with human rights monitors, have accused Syrian government forces of ransacking the ruins of their neighbourhoods and auctioning off agricultural land.

The Syrian government has not commented publicly on the accusations.

Syria’s mass uprising in 2011 became a devastating war after Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus administrated a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters. The armed rebellion spread, bringing in foreign proxies, complicating the conflict, which is now in its 12th year.

At least 350,000 people were killed within the war in step with the international organization, with verity number thought to be much higher. Approximately half of Syria’s pre-war population is displaced, with millions forced to escape to neighbouring countries and other parts of the country. The UN estimates that 90 per cent of Syria’s population lives in poverty.

Source Aljazeera