On April 18, Aleppo was shrouded in darkness after rebel forces claimed to shut down the power grid that cuts across the entire governorate. It was a bargaining tactic: the opposition’s local chief of electricity said that power would not be restored until the government stopped its barrel bombings, an aerial offensive that has killed thousands of people in Aleppo since December.
While the Syrian government was once met with hostility from Aleppo residents, whose electricity had been systematically cut off in rebel-controlled areas as a punitive measure, the same residents now say local opposition forces are using the city’s spotty electricity flow as a “bartering chip.”
The Aleppo Media Center, a pro-opposition media group reporting on the city, said that the Islamist rebel groups including the Shariah Committee, the Islamic Front, the Nusra Front and the Mujahdeen army; had decided to cut off power across both rebel-held and regime-held Aleppo until its conditions were met. Those conditions include the lifting of government sieges in various parts of the country.
A statement signed by those groups also included a threat to cut electricity in the Syrian capital, Damascus, as well as the coastal areas, both of which are government strongholds. “[We are] now coordinating with other military and revolutionary factions in these areas,” it said.
Aleppo residents have had mixed reactions to the rebel decision to shut down the power grid. Zeineddine, an electrical engineer working in a rebel-held Aleppo neighborhood, sympathized with the tactic. He sees the electricity cut as “a way to put pressure on the government after the opposition was unable to shoot down their fighter jets. [People die] every day and this has been happening for five months now. This can’t be tolerated anymore.”
In previous months, residents here say the government had shelled a number of power stations supplying rebel-held areas, deliberately targeting main sources of electricity. In their view, the rebels are just giving regime areas a taste of what they’ve endured.
Mohammad Wissam is a doctor working in the rebel-held al-Shaar neighborhood. He said that the decision could put pressure on the government by making life harder for its support base.
“Most people living in [rebel-held] areas already depend on big generators, so the decision to cut off power will not affect them,” he added. “We’ve persevered without power [before], and we will do so again.”
Samia, a clothing seller in the rebel-held al-Maysar neighborhood of Aleppo, said that in all parts of the city, the poorest residents were the most impacted by the power cuts. “Leaders on both sides can play with the electricity, because they have enough money to turn on their generators,” she said. “The biggest losers of this war are us simple folks.”