Suweida Massacre: Will the World Keep Looking Away?

The Syrian city of Suweida has been in the news for the past days following the gory pictures of death and destruction that have enveloped the beleaguered city and the under -reported case of massacre going on there.

In this city armed men, government forces and foreign fighters are reportedly roaming through the streets, going door-to-door shooting and killing residents as clashes between Druze and Bedouin triggered unprecedented bloodbath and barbarism.

A 45-year-old Druze woman, identified as Rima, who has lived in the southern Syrian city her whole life, said “There were bodies everywhere outside our building.”

LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that a resident of the city, who wished to remain anonymous, cried out seeking the assistance of the international community to intervene to stop the attacks, stressing that “it is not mere unrest but a full -scale assault on the peaceful city.

He said “snipers and tanks are stationed across neighbourhoods, there are deliberate killings of civilians, women, children and youth in the streets and homes and bombings, burning of homes, shops, and even hospitals.

“Drinking water is being poisoned coupled with a suffocating siege and a total media blackout. Suweida is being exterminated and the world is silent. Unarmed people are being slaughtered simply for saying “No” to humiliation.  We need urgent support: Media, humanitarian, legal, and international solidarity . Silence is a crime, speaking out is resistance.”

LEADERSHIP Sunday , also gathered that on Tuesday, July 15, fifteen members of the same family- unarmed men, cousins and brothers were slaughtered in cold blood.

The violence has left the residents feeling abandoned and afraid in their own homes, as bullets and shells besieged the city increasing the lingering tension between Druze and Bedouin tribes.

The conflict was sparked by the abduction of a Druze merchant on the highway to Damascus, the Syrian capital as the immediate cause. But there are remote and much deeper antagonistic issues between the Druze and the Bedouin tribes.

The fighting has spread to other parts of the southern province, and prompted the government of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa to announce that it would deploy the interior and defence ministry’s forces to “restore stability”.

Government forces were deployed on Tuesday,  but some local Druze leaders have rejected the presence of the security forces in Suweida city, accusing them of spearheading the attacks against the Druze as the conflicts escalated.

Although the Syrian government has taken some steps to restore law and order, clashes erupted in the city again on Friday as electricity and Internet services have been cut making life increasingly difficult for the hapless residents.

There was a ceasefire agreement on Wednesday and the pulling out of government forces from Suweida but Friday’s clashes meant the ceasefire agreement may have collapsed.

The attacks against the Druze have attracted the Israeli military, which has unleashed waves of airstrikes in Syria, claiming it has to intervene to protect the Druze.

Al-Sharaa was the rallying point of the Islamist rebels that spearheaded  the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s  long-serving regime in December  2024,  and since his coming to power, the nation has remained fragile  and he has struggled to unite the deeply divided country torn along tribal and sectarian lines.

Since the fall of the Bashar Assad regime, the world appears to have paid little attention to Syria, but it has become incumbent on the international community to rise to the occasion and help the country to quell this latest bloodshed.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, has documented the killing of at least 594 people since Sunday, including 154 Druze civilians, of whom 83 were summarily killed by government forces, and three members of Bedouin tribes who were summarily killed by Druze fighters.

The Human Rights group on Friday reported renewed clashes west of the southern city, “pitting tribal fighters and Bedouin supported by the authorities on one side, against Druze fighters on the other”.

At the time of writing this report the Embassy of Syria in Abuja has not issued an official statement on this development, but a source within the mission, who pleaded anonymity, assured that the mission will respond to this development.

The United Nations and International human right groups are called upon to investigate the case of genocide and take proper action to end this dangerous development.