“Civil Society Spotlight” is a series aiming at highlighting and contextualising the voices of Syrian civil society organizations, activists, journalists, and people who advocate for positive solutions, human rights, democratic values, and social justice.
The Context
Fires broke out on June 27 in several villages in the countryside of Latakia and Hama. They began to spread and expand on July 3, and flared up again, albeit on a more limited scale, about one week later.
In order to save the country’s green lung and reduce the devastation of forested areas, the Syrian Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management dispatched firefighting teams in all the affected areas.
Only on July 12 Minister Raed al-Saleh confirmed that the crisis was close to being resolved.
The same day, however, the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) clarified there was still much work to do: "Field firefighting teams within the joint operations room, with intensive air support, are making every effort to limit the spread of forest fires in the mountains of the Latakia countryside, protect the forests of Al-Farnalq, Burj Zahia, and the forests in the Jabal al-Nisr area, and establish new paths with engineering vehicles to enable the arrival of firefighters, fire trucks, supply lines, and logistical support. The operation is extremely difficult and risky due to the spread of war remnants mines, as well as the unpredictable and fast winds".
According to the Syrian Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD), already on July 7 the fires had spread to approximately 28 locations, covering an area exceeding 10,000 hectares. They had reduced more than 100 square kilometres of forested land to ash, destroying approximately 3% of the total of Syrian forests.
Finally, the fires displaced more than 1,200 people from the villages they had reached.
Despite the intensive efforts of the firefighting teams, forest fires continued to rage in the following days, also because of the strong winds and logistical difficulties. By July 11, the affected area had reached 15,000 hectares.
The operations to extinguish the fires required big and collaborative efforts. More than 150 teams from the Syrian Civil Defense and fire brigades participated, in addition to groups from different institutions, ministries, and some groups of volunteers.
Civil Society Spotlight: The Massacres on the Coast
08 April 2025
The teams were supported by 300 firefighting vehicles and dozens of logistical support cars. Heavy engineering equipment has also been used in order to divide the forests into easily accessible sectors and to open roads for the firefighting teams.
Minister Raed al-Saleh praised the level of solidarity among Syrians, saying: “I believe that we will overcome the disaster because we are facing it together as Syrians from Sweida to Aleppo and from Latakia to Hasakah".
The efforts were not limited to Syria. Support units from Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Qatar joined the operations. The Syrian Red Crescent provided relief supplies to families, helped to evacuate residents and their livestock from homes damaged by the fires and transported people to hospitals, including members of the Syrian Civil Defense. It also provided fuel for water tanks.
Finally, the United Nations has allocated $625,000 to support emergency response efforts.
In the end, al-Saleh recognized the combined effort that enabled to put the fires under control, saying "We would not have reached this stage without God's grace, then our united efforts, high-level coordination, widespread popular support, and the backing of firefighting teams from Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Qatar. We promise our people that we will not leave until the last flame of the fire has been extinguished".
The right minister at the right time and the right place
Perhaps for the first time since the fall of Bashar al Assad, on December 8, 2024, most Syrians had to agree on something in relation to the government of Ahmad al-Sharaa: the efforts and the approach of Raed al-Saleh, the Minister of Emergency and Disaster, in dealing with the fires that ravaged the Syrian coast.
Many praised his approach to the crisis, and shared photos of him at the heart of the catastrophe, as he was supporting the firefighters on the ground. Videos circulated showing him riding a motorcycle to reach the front lines, inspect the teams, and assess the situation.
His active presence on the ground could appear surprising for a government official, but Raed al-Saleh was a humanitarian relief worker before becoming a minister. In fact, he led the Syrian Civil Defense from its establishment in 2013 until the end of last March, when he was appointed as a minister in the Syrian Transitional Government.
The Syrian Civil Defense is a volunteer humanitarian rescue organization that operated in areas controlled by the Syrian opposition and then moved to areas controlled by the former Syrian regime after its fall in late 2024. On June 3, it dissolved itself within the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management, with the aim of unifying efforts and developing emergency and disaster response at the national level.
The widespread praise of al-Saleh impact in the crisis is quite significant, especially since he is not a political figure, but one of the few experts and technicians appointed in the transitional government.
It can also be read as a clear sign of the extent to which the country currently needs technocrats more than other types of political characters.
Syrians unite to confront the disaster
The disaster generated a strong reaction among Syrian activists and the population in general, as social media were flooded with statements of solidarity, donation campaigns, and constant coverage of the events.
As Khaldoun al-Nabwani, a Syrian-French professor at Université la Sorbonne, told us, disasters "make people sympathize with one another and bring them closer together. In fact, what happened brings to mind what happened during the February 2023 earthquake. In these occasions, there are no longer large borders or much talk about regime-held areas versus opposition-held areas, liberated areas versus non-liberated areas. People in disasters are not categorized. Disasters unite Syrians in general. However, the problem is that we should not wait for disasters to unite Syrians"
On the 30th of June, a group of activists issued a joint statement about the fires that were burning the forests in the area of Jabal al-Qaher, close to Masyaf. The statement warned of catastrophic consequences for people, the environment, and food security, emphasizing that civil society efforts were not enough to confront it. In about three days, the fires had already burned 2,500 dunams of forests on the mountain (around 250 hectares). The signatories called for a more effective official response, a transparent disclosure of the causes of the fires, and immediate action by international organizations and neighbouring countries to provide technical and logistical support. Finally, the statement also identified the need to train firefighting teams and improve coordination with local forces to ensure a more professional response in the future.
Another group of civil society activists, named Syrians, also released a statement on July 8, expressing similar concerns in relation to the spread of fires in the area of Latakia. This statement also praised the efforts of the Civil Defense, and of Raed al-Saleh.
Since the forest fires spread in the Latakia countryside, several local volunteer campaigns have been launched. Among them are the Be Helpful team and the Aqmuha Association, which were collecting donations for the delivery of water tankers to firefighting points. They also provided drinking water and food baskets, clothing, and medical supplies to the affected villages and the families.
Civil Society Spotlight: Episode IV
02 July 2025
The White Hands Relief Association, on the other hand, provided direct support to the Syrian Civil Defense members in the same areas, to enable them to continue performing their duties.
Similarly, the Bidayatna Initiative called for contributions to cover the costs of delivering essential aid to the Civil Defense personnel, including water tankers and other essential supplies. In this context, the initiative launched a donation campaign in cooperation with the Mosaic Association for Relief and Humanitarian Development, which mobilized its volunteer teams and worked in partnership with Oxfam International. Other groups, like al-Sanubar Volunteer Team, also mobilised to provide similar services. Single individuals also donated food baskets.
Finally, some organizations (the Ghosun Voluntary team, the Sanabil Voluntary Team, and Let’s take initiative together) organised stands in a public square of Salamiyah, showing banners expressing gratitude towards the Civil Defense.
At the same time, while all these initiatives we listed here tend to highlight the positive role played by the teams on the ground as well as the mobilisation of people to support aid efforts, civil activist Ali Al-Zein, founder of the Syrian Seed Archive initiative, revealed to SyriaUntold that, despite all the tremendous efforts, the civil response was characterized by chaos and disorganization. In particular, he criticized the lack of a centralized coordination among volunteer teams, believing that establishing a unified platform to guide volunteers and define clear tasks would have improved the effectiveness of civil efforts and eased the burden on Civil Defense teams.
Finally, he noted that some initiatives appeared to exploit the disaster: "Unfortunately, for example, some water tankers refused to cooperate unless they were paid exorbitant sums, ranging from $100 to $150, even though the actual cost does not exceed $20."
At the same time, he repeats, all these volunteer efforts would not have been possible without the donations of Syrians, both within the country and abroad.
Only one competent minister
The remarkable consensus about Raed al-Saleh's role in managing the crisis among Syrians with different backgrounds reveals that "those opposed to the government are not ideological opponents, remnants of the regime, or sectarian", writes on a Facebook post Syrian writer and political activist Eiad Herera.
He also emphasized that "Raed al-Saleh is a hard-working man in his rightful place, as should be the case in the country, and this is what the opposition wants".
In an additional comment to SyriaUntold, Herera points out that "the fires have exposed an issue on which opponents of the de facto government already expressed: that it lacks the capacity, experience, and knowledge to manage the country. It only has a kind of ‘jihadist’ military experience, and was brought in to maintain security and secure the transitional phase. It has begun making decisions outside its mandate, and at the first security test, it has failed, as it did with events on the coast, with the Druze, in the terrorist attack on the church, or in the face of natural disasters, when it had to rely entirely on a minister in its government with extensive experience in disaster management and response."
Instead of forming an emergency response body, Herera concludes, this government has sent its fighters to the coast to "pursue old regime loyalists" it accuses, albeit through unofficial channels, of starting fires—in the very mountains where they are hiding! This appears again to confirm the jihadist military nature of this authority”.
Also journalist and political activist Zozan Alosh commended the performance of Raed al-Saleh, writing in a post on Facebook that the minister chose to be on the ground, alongside relief teams and volunteers, rather than in meeting rooms or behind press releases. She considered that "his honest presence, devoid of showmanship or vulgarity, reflects a deep understanding of the meaning of national responsibility at a fragile moment."
Syrian journalist and activist Eiad Charbaji went even further, writing on Facebook that "this man is the son of the Syrian land and its spirit, a real human being who is not concerned with our divisions and disagreements, who does not participate in any sectarian discourse, and who does not discriminate between Syrians, to the point that he sent civil defense teams into areas controlled by the former regime and its strongholds to rescue civilians during the February 2023 earthquake".
He added, "When I saw his pictures lying on the ground amidst the fires on the coast, I knew he was truly tired. He wasn't playing the role of a humble minister like others. He was just who he is, as we've always known him... the Syrian man; a true pioneer and righteous man".
Destruction of Forests on the Syrian Coast
20 January 2025
Khaldoun al-Nabwani agrees, saying to SyriaUntold that “he may not be a good speaker, but that is not the most important quality in a minister, and in all cases he represents an exceptional case in an unfamiliar ministry, the Ministry of Disasters, as if this country is doomed to disasters. By all accounts, he has so far demonstrated a certain humanity without being vulgar. Today there is a lot of talk about the banality of the Minister of Culture, Mohammed Saleh, and his vulgar behaviour, style and how he labels people. For example, when he categorised the role of Alawites between that of ‘servants’ and ‘criminals’. The government in Damascus in general is incompetent, as many representatives were placed in it to satisfy the outside world only and not for their skills”.
In different posts on Facebook, Syrian journalist Mohammed al-Hajj, while praising the performance of Raed al-Saleh and the Civil Defense, also harshly criticised other ministers, like Hind Kawabat, the head of the ministry of Social and Labour Affairs, who was absent despite the urgent need to provide shelter for the displaced people.
He also wrote, on July 11: "Raed Al-Saleh, the prince of nobles, is still at the site of the fires, while the Minister of Agriculture did not arrive until two days later, and the Minister of Environment six days later, despite his ministry's direct responsibility. The Minister of Social Affairs is still abroad, participating in workshops in Jordan, at a time when thousands of displaced people need urgent intervention".
Al-Hajj questioned the apparent absence of some relevant agencies, saying that the UN is monitoring and allocating financial support, but that neither the housing teams nor the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Environment have made any significant impact on the response to the disaster. He added: "About 5,000 displaced people and 1,600 families have been directly affected, but where have they been relocated? Which shelters have received them? There are no clear details".
Finally, al-Zein, in his interview with SyriaUntold, criticized the new Syrian government's decisions regarding the separation of firefighting and rescue teams based on sectarian backgrounds, which, in his opinion, constituted one of the most prominent factors that hindered a rapid response to the fires. He said: "The people of the region know the mountainous terrain like the back of their hand, while teams coming from other areas faced difficulty in arriving, which led to the disruption of the movement of vehicles and the delay in controlling the fires."
The disaster can be also an opportunity
What the fires have clearly revealed is that the Syrian people are "able to recover from their wounds" and that "we are ultimately forced to live together on one land," Syrian journalist Alaa Amer tells SyriaUntold.
However, Amer doubts that the environmental disaster, despite the manifestations of solidarity among Syrians, has "succeeded in reshaping the concept of unity," and considers it "an exaggerated description”.
“At the same time”, she adds, “the disaster has revealed initiatives that are encouraging and promising. Raising awareness of environmental issues must begin in schools, meaning that schools must graduate children who love their country and fear any threat to it. Different ministries (Education, Social Affairs, Agriculture, etc.) have a role to play in this."
As for civil society organizations, Amer believes that there is certainly a role for them, but it should be a complementary and "restorative" role, and that the burden cannot be "thrown entirely on them."
List of civil society organizations and key activists included in this article:
Eiad Charbaji (Journalist and political activist)
Eiad Herera (writer and political activist)
Khaldoun al-Nabwani (Researcher)
Let’s take initiative together
Mosaic Association for Relief and Humanitarian Development
Syrian civil defence (White Helmets)
