Yesterday, 7 Syrians in Qomhaneh participated in the first documented protest demanding bread in areas solidly under Syrian regime control. The extreme bread shortage in this loyalist town & regime response to it are quite telling.

The protesters appealed to Assad, asking for bread (not rights). Qomhaneh is a Sunni town in Hama, but it sons joined pro-regime armed formations in large numbers, particularly the Tiger Forces (Division 25), a militia implicated in a long list of war crimes, including use of CW.

Qomhaneh is often called "the second Qardaha" [the hometown of the Assad clan] for its loyalty to the regime. Town residents say that over 300 of the town's men (out of 5,000 families) have been killed in the ranks of the Syrian Army/pro-regime militias since 2011.

Division 25 profits from smuggling across the frontiers & sale of fuel stolen from the military, the town's residents & armed men are overwhelmingly poor. Similarly to all of Syria, the town suffers from long power & water cuts, a shortage of fuel & public transport.

A civilian living in the town told me today that "it takes 3 days to finish washing clothes" because of the inconsistent supply of electricity. Usually, power arrives for an hour and cuts off for 7. Locals are forced to buy water due to almost-constant water cuts.

A month ago, the sale of subsidized bread in Qomhaneh was moved to the electronic "Smart Card" system. Locals report that the shortage of bread got worse then, exacerbated by the presence of about 2,000 families displaced from Idlib who are not covered by the town's quota.

Similarly to other areas of Syria, the quality of the bread is also extremely poor. This is a photo of yesterday's bread. A Syrian militiaman who is from Qomhaneh & lives there sent me the photo & added "this is not edible but we have to eat to avoid starving to death."

All original inhabitants of Qomhaneh are entitled to just one bag of bread (with 7 pitas), regardless of the size of the family. Yesterday's tiny protest was organized by a man who has 7 children. He got his brother's sons to participate too.

The response of the regime to this tiny protest is fascinating. Suddenly, major loyalist TV & radio stations covered the shortage of bread & complaints of the population. All except 1 radio station without mentioning the protest. The regime doesn't want people getting ideas.

The loyalist Facebook page (Qomhaneh Today) that originally published photos & a video of the protest deleted them.
In media interviews, government officials vacillated between saying there is no shortage & vowing to solve it immediately, blaming local corrupt distributors.

While the distributors do steal some of the bread & sell on the black market, the issue at the heart of the crisis is a nation-wide shortage of wheat. The amount of bread allocated to the town (5,575 bags daily) can only cover 1 bag for the local 5,520 families (excluding IDPs)

Locals reject the claim by regime officials that the problem is local & insist the issue is with the quota allocated to the town by the Ministry of Internal Trade. Locals complain of officials' corruption, but present Assad as not responsible for the corruption of his appointees.

The town's residents are particularly offended that they sacrificed so much "for the state" & in return get such poor services. Yet they don't demand much. A civilian living in the town told me "We just want bread. Let them cut the electricity & internet, but bread is essential."

At the root of the bread crisis:
The Syrian regime is broke
The foreign currency used by Syrian companies to import wheat was held in Lebanese banks that squandered most of the deposits
Most wheat is grown in SDF areas, which sold only a small share of the harvest to the regime

Russia is Syria's traditional wheat supplier & could alleviate this crisis by donating wheat to Syria. It has refused to do so since the start of this unprecedented shortage of bread & growing incidence of hunger in regime areas.

Despite the promises in public & private by government officials, today no improvement occurred in the distribution of bread. I will provide updates if the situation changes.