Raqqa City: the struggle to start anew
Returning residents face challenging living conditions. Those unable to afford food will receive assistance from the World Food Programme (WFP)
In the ruins on Wadi Street, a row of inhabitable buildings shattered by shellfire, mounds of rubble and charred remains of vehicles lie in every corner, while a bulldozer futilely removes debris from war damage engulfing the decimated city of Raqqa.
Around the corner, children play hide and seek on their doorsteps, reclaiming their freedom to run around and play. Across from them, some women and men gather at a small bakery to buy pita bread.
Raqqa city, where close to a hundred thousand people have returned in the past few months, has become a wasteland, reduced to utter ruin.
Wide-scale destruction across the entire city has meant that the infrastructure of basic services such as water, electricity and phone connectivity is non-existent. Families who left their homes intact returned after many months to find them destroyed, looted or both.
Struggling to start anew
Attempts at clearing the endless debris and rebuilding are underway but the colossal scale of destruction forecasts many years of painfully slow work and residents having to make do with very little.
“Without my home I feel I am worth nothing.”
In Mansour neighbourhood, Rabea Darwish struggles to keep her balance as she makes her way down a damaged alleyway to reach her wrecked home.
Like many others, Rabea had fled Raqqa to escape the violence and was shocked when she returned to find her home destroyed. Still, she did not let herself fall into despair and spent her precious little savings to salvage what she could.
“Without my home I feel I am worth nothing,” said Rabea.
But even with a roof on her head, Rabea says life is unbearable in the city without electricity or clean water.
“We don’t get any water at home and drink water we buy in tanks but, even then, the water is not clean. When I fill a cup of water I can see the dirt settling at the bottom,” she said.
While some demining activities have been carried out, allowing for trade routes to function and for commercial goods to flow into the city from across the country, landmines and unexploded ordnance remain a threat to residents returning to Raqqa city. These have also slowed down the clearing of debris.
Returnees suggested that we venture deeper into the city. “If you walk down the deserted streets of Raqqa, you can smell the stench of corpses rotting underneath the rubble,” one resident told me.
Falling into debt just to eat
With few jobs available, many of the people returning to Raqqa cannot afford the basics such as food, clothes and other living necessities. Many buy bread and basic foods on credit.
A year ago, Jamila Mohamed fled to Ain Issa town, where a camp was set up to receive families displaced from Raqqa governorate. She finally returned to Raqqa city two weeks ago only to find her home shelled and everything looted. “I have nothing now,” she said. “I am in debt just to buy bread and vegetables.” Like most residents, the 70-year-old woman lives in the ruins of her neighbourhood and uses a small generator for electricity.
The construction workers continue to mix concrete with water to make bricks in an effort to rebuild a city beyond repair. Some shops have opened up and wholesale traders bring goods from across the country and abroad.
But the majority of Raqqa’s people remain stuck in time, struggling to rebuild their lives in the face the overwhelming physical reminders of their trauma, whether they be heaps of rubble cutting off entire districts or lives lost and shattered in the aftermath of war.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has been supporting families displaced from Raqqa in neighbouring camps of Ain Issa and Mabrouka in Hasakeh governorate. Inside Raqqa city, WFP will provide food assistance to 30,000 people.
Children and their families across Syria in desperate need of your support. To donate to WFP’s efforts to help them, visit cdn.wfp.org/donate.
