The activists issued their statement after local bakeries were completely closed due to the acute shortage of the product.

The statement was released by activist Majd Abazid, a native of the neighboring province of Deraa, who rejected the use of hunger as a weapon and defended human dignity as an inalienable right.

The statement demanded that the civilian population be kept out of the political conflict and warned about the humanitarian conditions in the region, where Sweida has gone three consecutive days without bread or flour.

It also made an urgent call to the authorities to prevent a food catastrophe. We don’t want our people to die of hunger or suffer further harm, the statement concluded.

The governor of Sweida, Mustafa Al-Bakour, pointed out that state agencies are willing to send supplies of wheat and flour, but they do not have a local authority to manage the distribution.

The governor blamed local actors for the deepening food crisis.

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