Middle East & Africa | A country divided

Ten years of war have broken Syria into pieces

Will it ever be whole again?

|Qamishli

THE PRICE OF food has soared in Syria, leaving many of its people at risk of going hungry. Yet from his office in Qamishli, in the north-east, a trader describes how officials make it hard to bring wheat to market. His lorries must cross scores of checkpoints on their way to Damascus, the capital. Most demand fees. Kurdish forces charge by the tonne at the de facto border between the territory they control and that of President Bashar al-Assad.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “A country divided”

Biden’s big gamble: What a $1.9 trillion stimulus means for the world economy

From the March 13th 2021 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Middle East & Africa

Palestinians newar a burnt-out vehicle after a group of settlers attacked a village in the West Bank

The Gaza ceasefire is stoking violence in the West Bank

Hamas and the Israeli far right both want to destabilise the West Bank

People hold a banner featuring Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as members of the Syrian community and supporters gather to celebrate the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, in Istanbul, December 8, 2024

Turkey is determined to expand its influence in the new Syria

That could cause tensions with the Arab world—and Israel


Israeli-Palestinian-conflict-January-19

The start of a fragile truce in Gaza offers relief and joy

But the ceasefire is not yet the end of the war


West African booze is becoming a luxury product

Female entrepreneurs are leading the charge

The Trump effect could upend the Middle East

Will Israel and Donald Trump use the threat of annexation to secure a new grand bargain?

After 15 months of hell, Israel and Hamas sign a ceasefire deal

Donald Trump provided the X factor by putting heat on Binyamin Netanyahu, who insists the war isn’t over yet