Daily life Schools, bars and shops in Damascus reopen while petrol shortage eases

Damascus appeared to be adjusting to a new normality a week after Islamist-led rebels forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee the country, with schools and universities reopening on the first day of the working week.

- Bethan McKernan

Ali Allaham, dean of Damascus University's arts faculty, told Agence France-Presse 80% of staff and a "large number of students" had arrived on campus. About 30% of children had returned to one school, a staff member said, but the number was expected to rise.

Petrol shortages appeared to ease, with queues of cars forming to fill up at petrol stations or stopping to buy plastic containers from street vendors, while shopkeepers around the city were still busy scrubbing the regime flag from their premises and repainting walls and shutters white.

Sunday church services were conducted as normal, and by nightfall in Bab Touma, a Christian area of the Old City, restaurants and bars opened for the first time since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other rebel groups stormed the capital.

The performance of the Syrian pound also augured well, strengthening 20% against the US dollar yesterday, its best performance since the economic crash of 2021 and a huge boon in a country where 90% of the population lives below the poverty line.

It is hoped that Damascus's airport will reopen later this week.