Saleh al-Douhaik, Baladi News, Homs
The humanitarian crises that hit the northern countryside of Homs are on the rise due to the fierce war waged by the Syrian regime, the latest of which was the bread crisis as the warning voices against closing the bakeries in the opposition-held areas in the northern countryside of Homs have been increased due to the depletion of flour.
The bread committee in the city of Talbiseh launched an urgent distress call to remedy the situation and issued a statement on the social networking websites in which it said: "we inform you that the committee is distributing the bread material in the city of Talbiseh and its countryside through the support provided by charities and the city's expatriates. The committee added that the provided support is not enough to meet the needs of the people and the debts have been accumulated after the promises by some associations along with the National Coalition of supporting the bread material in the city, but unfortunately they didn't fulfill their promises".
Mr. Abdul Kareem Kaysoon, head of the bread committee in the city of Talbiseh, said in an interview with Baladi News: "Bread is an essential and indispensable material in food and with the decrease in the purchasing power of the citizen due to the unemployment in the city because of war, many can't buy the unsubsidized bread, as one kilogram of bread reached 300 SYP. Moreover, the regime has stopped the allocations of flour for the northern countryside since 4 years following the control of opposition forces over the region so the civilians paid the tax of cutting the allocations of flour".
Kaysoon added that the reason behind this crisis in the northern countryside generally and in Talbiseh specifically is attributed to the stoppage of the humanitarian organizations of supporting the bread material; the inactivity of the big relief organizations which don't operate in our besieged region due to their inability to reach the region because of the siege; the irresponsibility of the National Coalition, Interim Government and the Municipality Council towards the besieged civilians and that the Interim Government subsidized the bread material at the beginning of this year but with a very modest percentage (10%) for a limited number of production.
He pointed out that the Committee of bread produces about 24 thousand bundles of bread that contain about 17 tons of flour per loaf which are distributed to about 70 thousand people in the city of Talbiseh and its countryside. The cost of one bundle of bread is around 200 SYP at least, and it's being sold to the citizen for 50 SYP. The cost may increase if the prices of fuel rise as what happened a while ago when the price of one liter of diesel has tripled at the time. He concluded: "we suffer from the difficulty of entering the fuel into the region due to the siege".
He stressed at the end of his speech that the problem of bread is not the first, as we have been suffering from this problem for a long time and that maintaining the price of one bundle at this price is a great thing according to the weak potentials of the bread committee".