With Bashar al-Assad out of power, residents of Aleppo who were forced to flee during the nation's long civil war are returning from abroad or refugee camps. But as the Guardian reports, a major problem greets them: An estimated two-thirds of the city lies in rubble, and it could take decades for the city to resemble its prewar self. For now, reconstruction is mostly improvised and individual—cement bags guarded at night, cinder blocks salvaged by hand from debris. The absence of coordinated state-led recovery efforts has left people to reclaim what they can and make incremental repairs just to survive. "What can people do?" asks one local politician. "They can't afford rents and don't want to live in tents any more."
The story by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad traces the city's ancient legacy as a crossroads of trade and multicultural life—centered in the historic al-Madina market—and details the gradual approach of urban warfare, including fires that tore through the city's historic districts in 2012. It also follows individuals such as Abu Arab as he slowly tries to rebuild his family home, without any kind of state blueprint for restoration. Abdul-Ahad captures the gist:
- "Walking through the ruins of Aleppo, it often feels as if the conflict is not over, as if snipers might still be peering from their hideouts. Cities such as Beirut, Sarajevo and Mosul feel as if they continuously live in the shadow of their former wars. And maybe the only way to defeat that fear is not by erasing the ruins and building anew, but by following Abu Arab's way of confronting the destruction little by little, fixing a frame, fitting a door, patching a wall, conquering the ruins brick by brick." Read the full story.
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