After the fall of the Assad regime in 2025, Syrians started returning in the hopes of rebuilding their lives. But continued sectarian violence and a lack of humanitarian assistance leave the country in prolonged uncertainty.
Syria’s Diverse Religious-Ethnic Groups
In the year since the regime’s end, many expected a return to peace and a new beginning for development. But among the many religious and ethnic groups, differences were hardly settled and fighting continued.
The largest groups involved in the fighting are the country’s Sunni majority. Another large ethnic-religious people are the Alawites, while the Druze are a religious minority. There are smaller groups as well, such as the Bedouins in the south and the Kurds in the north.
The Alawites are a distinct religious community. Though their beliefs are similar to Shiite Islam, they maintain their unique rituals and leadership. Before the war, their population was estimated at 2 million, about 10% of Syria’s population. Their religious difference from the current Sunni majority is now paired with a resentment against them as key military personnel for the Assad regime – Assad and his family were Alawites themselves.
Druze live in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. A significant number of them reside in the southern provinces of Syria, such as Sweida and the suburbs of Damascus, and the north of Israel in the Golan Heights. Their community is often referred to as a sect, since it is completely closed to outsiders. They, like the Alawites, are considered heretics by Islamist factions; due to this, the Druze, like many other minorities who feel threatened, maintain their own militia.
Violence Erupts Once Again
Though the Assad regime is gone, the current government is struggling to keep peace among the various groups.
This month, Human Rights Watch called out the Syrian government for “lacking” accountability and failing to prosecute Syrian government forces and local Bedouin and Druze armed groups for major abuses, including war crimes.
The NGO is referring to a checkpoint confrontation, which occurred in Sweida governorate on 12 July 2025. The fighting escalated into several days of fighting, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands.
Shortly afterwards the Druze were attacked by the al-Sharaa government and asked for assistance from Israeli Druze. The result: Israel bombed Syria’s Ministry of Defense and other targets in Damascus to protect the Druze. The Bedouin, whom the government was allegedly protecting, were pushed out of the region by the fighting.
In March 2025, reports surfaced of violence in coastal cities, which the government responded to with summary executions; most of the victims were reportedly Alawite.
Currently, the Islamist government is focused on the northern areas, where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces still hold sporadic control. Violence has erupted in Aleppo, with mostly Alawite casualties. Currently, there is a fragile calm in the area.
“Syria is caught up in this vicious cycle where the government doesn’t have trust with minority groups. It can’t exert enough power to bring those minority groups into the fold,” Rob Geist Pinfold, a scholar of international security at King’s College London, explained to Al Jazeera, adding that it also doesn’t want to do so in an “oppressive or repressive way that would only alienate them further.”
Humanitarian Assistance Desperately Needed
While violence rages on, the country’s restoration efforts are negated, and tens of thousands remain displaced.
As of 16 January 2026, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported about 58,000 people in displacement, while almost 90,000 have been resettled after the Aleppo clashes.
According to the December OCHA briefing, the 2 million who returned from internal displacement and the 1.3 million from abroad have found destroyed infrastructure, lacking essential services, and continued danger.
Speaking to France24, Dr Mohamed Alaa Ahmado, Programs Director at the NGO Mehad, explained that people are fearful of returning.
“While some families have started to return to their neighbourhoods, many people are still displaced, and needs for humanitarian assistance remain high. For example, in some areas, returns are delayed due to poor services, security concerns, and unexploded ordnances,” he said.
Ahmado, part of the NGO’s humanitarian assistance team as a medical doctor, emphasized the need for essential medical kits, rehabilitation of damaged facilities, and the need for more mobile clinic services to be able to reach those in displacement in the rural areas of Syria.
He also highlighted the need for psychological care, cash assistance, and donations of food and non-food items, such as blankets, winter clothes, and hygiene products.
“The transition from humanitarian aid to longer-term recovery and reconstruction will require support from a wide range of partners in support of government-led efforts,” Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs at OCHA, explained to the United Nations. “Given the scale of the needs and the time required for development efforts to take hold, we also need support to sustain and expand the flow of humanitarian assistance in the near term.”
