Street vendors shout across narrow alleys, and even in the early morning, crowded streets are bustling with shoppers from all over the country. It’s a scene that would have been unimaginable just two months ago: Idlib, the site of significant fighting and displacement since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war more than a decade ago, is on its way back to being the vibrant city it once was. People have come from all over Syria to visit malls, shops, and relatives in this northwestern governorate.
After 10 years away from Syria due to the repression imposed by the deposed Syrian regime and various Islamic factions in the country, this reporter entered Idlib at dawn on January 6, through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, which separates the Turkish city of Reyhanlı from Syria’s Idlib Governorate.
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Ma'arrat Misrin, in Syria's Idlib Governorate, January 6, 2025
(Photo: Rizik Alabi/The Media Line)
The people there were joyful at the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime. These are the first days in nearly 14 years that the area has not witnessed aerial bombardment by the Syrian regime and Russian aircraft.
At the entrance to Sarmada, one of the cities in Idlib Governorate, a taxi driver said that markets in the area are seeing significant crowds again after having been paralyzed by bombings.
Over 500,000 civilians were killed in the Syrian civil war, and millions were displaced in Syria and beyond. Since 2018, more than 1.5 million civilians have been displaced just from the rural areas of Idlib and Hama, a governorate in west-central Syria.
The Islamist rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) controls large parts of Idlib Governorate. Together with various other factions, the rebels succeeded in toppling the Assad regime, which had controlled Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Latakia, Tartus, and parts of eastern Syria.
Since the fall of the Syrian regime, Syrians inside the country and in refugee-hosting nations have begun returning home and checking on their properties. Over 160,000 Syrian refugees have returned to Syria from Turkey, Jordan, and Europe. Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Syrians have also returned to their towns.
Abu Hassan, originally from the Idlib Governorate town of Kafr Nabl, is one such Syrian preparing for the return to his hometown. Part of that preparation involves getting fig tree saplings to plant since hundreds of thousands of fruit trees in the town were destroyed by Assad’s soldiers.
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From the city of Sarmada and the city of Maarat Misrin in Idlib
(Photo: Rizik Alabi/The Media Line)
“We found our homes completely destroyed and even the trees were cut or burned. Therefore, we must start over from scratch,” he told The Media Line. “Sadly, those trees they cut were decades old, so we’ll have to wait years again after planting new ones for them to bear fruit.”
Khaled, who fled the Idlib Governorate city of Ma'arat al-Nu'man for Damascus, told The Media Line he has no plans to return. His home and shop were destroyed, and he has no means to rebuild either one.
While sentiments about resettling in Idlib vary, thousands of Syrians from across the country are flocking to cities in Idlib Governorate like Idlib, Sarmada, and Dana to shop at the cities’ markets. The markets are known to feature a wide variety of goods at low prices. In the markets and across the country, Syrian residents currently use multiple currencies, with the Syrian pound the weakest among them.
The city of Idlib was known among Syrians as “the forgotten Idlib,” a reference to the severe neglect that the city suffered during the rule of Bashar Assad and his father, Hafez Assad. According to locals and researchers, the Assad family abandoned the city ever since the day residents pelted Hafez Assad with tomatoes when he came to visit in the 1980s.
On Thursday morning, Khaled and his wife arrived in Idlib to shop. Khaled said that life under Assad was hellish, with exorbitant prices and a severe shortage of goods.
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From the city of Sarmada and the city of Maarat Misrin in Idlib
(Photo: Rizik Alabi/The Media Line)
“In Damascus, it was difficult to obtain gas, diesel, or even bread. But these materials are widely available in Idlib,” he said. “However, it was forbidden for us to visit Idlib before Assad fell. Now, things have become better.”
He expressed admiration for the progress and openness he witnessed in Idlib, noting that Damascus lacks much of the development he saw there.
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Before the fall of the Assad regime, different forces ruled different regions in Syria, creating the effect of multiple countries in one state. Military checkpoints separated the Assad-regime-controlled areas from those under HTS rule. Similarly, Turkish-backed Syrian National Army checkpoints divided areas in rural Aleppo from other regions, and Kurdish checkpoints separated eastern Syria from the rest of the country.
Today, the country is interconnected once again, except for eastern Syria, which remains embroiled in clashes between the Syrian National Army and the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led, US-backed group.
Idlib’s markets have witnessed a remarkable return to activity, with goods quickly selling out due to the influx of Syrians from all parts of the country. These new shoppers have caused congestion in the markets.
'Like other Syrians, we are working hard because the country is in a phase of rebuilding after years of war'
Abu Sateef, a sheep and poultry trader in Sarmada, told The Media Line that prices have improved significantly and that traders are actively purchasing.
“Like other Syrians, we are working hard because the country is in a phase of rebuilding after years of war,” he said.
While Syrians like Abu Sateef are calling for the rapid reconstruction of their country, economic experts emphasize that the current stage is still one of restoring trust in the national economy.
The cost of reconstructing Syria is estimated to be at least $200 billion. One aspect of rebuilding the country will involve bringing back professionals and skilled laborers, many of whom have fled the country.
Children in Idlib after the war
Millions of Syrian children have grown up in the areas their families fled to, never knowing the family hometown. But children, too, share in the joy of Assad’s fall.
When children at a displacement camp in Idlib were asked about Assad, they immediately responded by calling him a criminal. One child looked at the sky and said, “Bashar Assad used to kill us with airplanes.”
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From the city of Sarmada and the city of Maarat Misrin in Idlib
(Photo: Rizik Alabi/The Media Line)
Northwestern Syria hosts 1,633 displacement camps, housing more than 1.8 million people. According to the Syrian Response Coordinators humanitarian organization, many young people in the camps have dropped out of school due to poor living conditions and the economic crisis.
More than two-thirds of children in northern Syria are unable to access formal education, and more than 2.1 million children across the country have dropped out of school. Girls and children with disabilities are especially likely to be out of school.
Since 2011, nearly 1,200 schools in Syria have been destroyed in airstrikes. Between 2019 and 2022 alone, the Syrian regime forces and allied Russian forces carried out more than 138 attacks on educational facilities in the region. More than 40% of the country’s educational infrastructure was destroyed, depriving hundreds of thousands of children of continuing their education.
Across northwestern Syria, 10% of the 1,834 schools are not functional. Around 553,000 children in the region are enrolled in schools, while another 500,000 remain outside the education system.
The Syrian educational system operates separately in different regions, with separate curricula for areas that were controlled by Assad, those controlled by the Syrian Salvation Government of HTS, and those controlled by Kurdish forces. The new administration is working to create a unified curriculum after removing books that praise the Assad family and their Baath Party.
The 950 public schools in Idlib adhere to curricula approved by the Syrian Salvation Government and are attended by approximately 213,000 students. Male and female students are educated separately, and female students are required to wear Islamic attire. Idlib also has an additional 450 private schools.