Syria’s Aleppo rehabilitation pace slow

We started work again a year ago and today we have four operational warehouses.

TWO men walking down a damaged street in Aleppo market. Syria has been in 8 years of ongoing civil war. AFP

ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — Among the destroyed buildings of Syria’s Aleppo, a battered sign between two army checkpoints welcomes visitors to an area earmarked to become a beacon of post-war reconstruction.

“The industrial city of Aleppo thanks you for your visit,” it reads.

Once the country’s powerhouse, Aleppo was devastated by Syria’s ongoing civil war before Russia-backed government forces expelled the last rebels in late 2016 after a devastating siege.

As some of the city is slowly rebuilt, the Russian army this week showed reporters around, as Moscow seeks to highlight its role in reconstruction of the war-torn country.

Several factories have reopened in the almost three years since the fighting ended in Aleppo, large parts of which were flattened.

At Katerji Engineering and Mechanical Industries, 1,000 people are employed in metalworking jobs. About a fifth of the workers recently returned to Aleppo.

“We started work again a year ago and today we have four operational warehouses,” said Salah Mitar, the engineer in charge.

“We hope to expand to 11 by 2020,” he told AFP, as employees bustled around him in one huge warehouse.

But Mitar said international sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s government and associated businessmen meant the factory cannot import sophisticated machinery.

The two main shareholders of Katerji Engineering and Mechanical Industries — Hussam and Baraa Katerji — are targeted by European Union and US sanctions respectively.

The factory was under rebel control until Aleppo’s recapture and production ground to a halt during fighting.

For the past eight months since the factory re-opened, employee Khaled said he had received a good salary.

But “very high prices in town” still make life difficult for him and his family, said the 38-year-old father of five.

After fuel shortages the government blames on sanctions, the value of the Syrian pound fell to its lowest level ever on the black market earlier this month.

Aleppo’s UNESCO-listed historic center and its centuries-old covered markets are also returning to life.

The frontline once ran through the old souqs, but today large parts of the historical trading center have been restored.

Workers still shovel rubble in some alleys, as coffee shops and stalls — most still empty — prepare to receive merchandise.