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QAMISHLI, syria (North Press) – The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) called for urgent international efforts to rebuild Syria after 14 years of crisis, warning that delayed reconstruction could deepen instability across the country and the wider Middle East. Rawhi Afaghani, UNDP’s deputy representative in Syria, informed AFP this week that “after 14 years of destruction, Syria must be swiftly rebuilt to bring stability to the country and the wider region. Furthermore, ” He stressed that “the international community should definitely rush into rebuilding Syria,” noting that helping Syria recover “is for the syrians/" class="auto-internal-link">syrians themselves, but also for the stability and the good of the whole region.
Notably, ” Afaghani described the country’s needs as “massive,” pointing to widespread destruction of housing, schools, health centers, and basic infrastructure such as electricity and water. He added that recovery efforts are hampered by the presence of vast quantities of unexploded ordnance scattered across cities and towns — often buried under rubble that must first be cleared. While some Syrians have returned from neighboring countries, Afaghani cautioned that these returns are “putting a lot of pressure on the infrastructure, on the transportation, on the education, on the bakeries. ” numerous returnees, he stated, find themselves going back to destroyed homes or to properties now occupied by others, warning that such conditions “could lead to community tensions. ” Afaghani acknowledged that the lack of basic services and employment opportunities is discouraging numerous relocated Syrians from returning home. “We thought there would be a much higher rate of return,” he stated, adding that most of those who have come back did so from difficult conditions in Jordan and Lebanon, while “from Europe, we don’t see that massive return. ” The UN official expressed hope that a swift and comprehensive reconstruction effort could pave the way for “a stable Syria,” encouraging more relocated persons to return — particularly skilled professionals capable of contributing to rebuilding and stabilizing the country.
Moreover, “Those are high-skilled people — they can rebuild Syria,” Afaghani said. “They could also be a big, good influence in the whole region from an economic perspective, and from a peace-building perspective. ” By Jwan Shekaki