Syria, no petrol: stop the football and basketball championships

Championship suspended due to lack of fuel. Were the situation in Syria not tragic, one would almost smile. Instead there is crying. Because with each passing day, while Western media attention remains focused solely and exclusively on Ukraine, people continue to suffer in those parts. That sport is also paying the price is only the logical consequence of a situation that has become unsustainable.

basketball too

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The football and basketball federations, managed by the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, announced in recent days the suspension of their respective championships to deal with the fuel supply crisis that has been gripping the nation for months. The decision does not only concern the top series, but all competitive activity. For now it is a temporary stop, and a decision on a possible restart will be made next year. Currently, only matches that don’t require moving from one city to another are allowed.

oil control

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In the last week, all areas of Syria under government control have effectively run out of petrol: from the capital Damascus to much of the area to the north and north-west. The East, on the other hand, is largely in the hands of the rebels of the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), with numerous pockets of terrorists linked to Tahrir al-Sham (a branch of Al Qaeda, the former Al Nusra Front) and to some ISIS cells still remained active. Most of the Syrian territory where the oil wells are located is instead controlled by the Kurdish militias, supported by the US. As a consequence, the national production of crude oil has collapsed from the 380,000 barrels per day pre-conflict to the current 80,000, affecting all sectors of the economy, which have been traveling with generators for some time given the almost total absence (except for a couple of hours per day) of electricity.

Traditionally every citizen was given 25 liters of petrol every 10 days by the government, now down to 25 every 20 days, with the interior ministry also more than doubling the price of fuel. The consequence was the almost immediate cessation of industrial activities, while government bodies shortened the working week by one day, from 5 to 4 (adding Sunday as a public holiday in addition to the classic Islamic Fridays and Saturdays), with many offices also closed due to the impossibility of employees to go to work. Closing days for schools of all levels are also foreseen shortly. Ambulances only move in cases of extreme gravity. In Syria it is the norm to find contraband petrol cans sold by the roadside, originating from neighboring Lebanon. But it is often watered down with the risk of ruining the engines.

solutions

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The Assad regime has so far not announced solutions to remedy the crisis. In the country people have already returned to protest, last Sunday a demonstrator was killed by the police in Sweida, in the south of the country. A nation that has already seen at least half a million people die since 2011 from the civil war. And where 90% of the population lives below the poverty line and 12.4 million inhabitants are not sure of being able to have food to put on the table, according to a UN report. It is clear that in such a situation, sport inevitably becomes the last wheel of the cart.