Hundreds gathered in Syria’s Druze heartland on Friday to demand the withdrawal of government forces after deadly sectarian violence last month and the opening of an aid corridor from neighbouring Jordan.
Sweida province has seen tough humanitarian conditions since week-long clashes killed around 1,400 people last month, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The United Nations says more than 175,000 displaced people have yet to return to their homes.
The violence initially pitted Druze fighters against local Sunni Bedouin tribes but rapidly escalated, drawing in Syrian government forces as well as Israel, which bombed them.
The Islamist-led interim government said its forces intervened to stop the clashes, but witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory accused them of siding with the Bedouin and of committing abuses including summary executions.
Dozens of protesters, including women and children, gathered in a main square in Sweida, holding placards calling for the opening of a humanitarian corridor from Jordan, an AFP photographer said.
Similar protests were held in other Druze towns, according to the Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group.
The government has deployed forces to several parts of Sweida province but not to the provincial capital.
Residents accuse them of imposing a blockade, a claim the government has denied, instead blaming “outlaw groups”, in reference to Druze fighters.
Activist Rawan Abu Assaf said protesters’ demands included “lifting the blockade imposed on Sweida province and the withdrawal of government forces from all its villages”.
The Observatory said the main Damascus-Sweida highway was still cut and accused armed groups linked to the government of blocking the resumption of normal trade.
The monitor said the province was under de facto blockade despite the entry of several aid convoys.
Interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said the convoys gave the lie to Druze claims of a blockade.
But the Observatory said the government was just keeping up appearances for the international community.
UN humanitarian coordinator Adam Abdelmoula said on Thursday that the United Nations and its partners had sent a new convoy to Sweida province, with 40 trucks carrying “a broad range of life-saving assistance” including food, water and medical supplies.
He called it “a significant step toward expanding access and scaling up the humanitarian response in affected areas of southern Syria”.
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© Agence France-Presse
