Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 26 August 2016: Syrian rebels evacuate Daraya in a deal to end siege

In accordance with a deal struck on Thursday, about 700 rebel fighters and 4,00 civilians began to leave Daraya. The town, located in Damascus suburbs, has been under siege for the last 4 years. The deal will allow the rebels to reach Idlib province which is not controlled by the government, provided they leave all heavy weapons. Civilians, on the other hand, will be relocated to temporary accommodations in Sahnaya near Damascus. Daraya was one of the first places that rose in arms against Bashar al-Asad’s regime and the negotiated surrender is both a symbolic and military victory for the government.

The evacuation is proceeding without significant hurdles and a Syrian Red Crescent aid convoy has reached the evacuees. Governments blockade of the city cut off supplies of food, water and other necessities, and the last working hospital was rendered inoperable by an air strike last week. The evacuation deal was not consulted with the UN, and the organisation’s special envoy to Syria, Staffa de Mistura, remarked that ‘the world is watching’ if the civilians are adequately protected and if the evacuation is voluntary.

The deal allows rebel fighters with families to leave for Idlib province and keep personal weapons. The strategic location of Daraya near Damascus and close to a road to Daraa was used hitherto by rebels to travel relatively easy between several enclaves they control in the capital region. The evacuation will thus worsen rebel strategic situation in the region while allowing freeing significant government forces to be used in other parts of the country, including the crucial Aleppo front. Daraya was a symbol of resistance and its surrender will hurt rebel morale, while vindicating government’s strategy of using hunger as a weapon. In the city, which boasted about 200,000 inhabitants before the war, only 5,000 people lived at the moment of surrender.