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The population of Deir Ezzor who were in the neighborhoods under the control of the Assad’s forces during the siege period, suffered several problems, the most important of which were the lack and the very high prices of bread and flour.
After the Assad forces took control of the entire city in late 2017, the situation with regard to the availability of bread improved slightly for a short period, and then the problem came back again because of the corruption and the flour monopoly by some merchants dealing with officers in the Assad regime.
D24 correspondent said that the reason behind the lack of bread is due to the fact that “Qays Al-Badawi” and the governor of Deir Ezzor bought a private mill and installed it behind Al-Assad hospital, and to increase the public pressure on bread they distributed a small amount of flour on the public bakeries, then shortly thereafter, the public mill (Al-Furat) was burnt down under suspicious circumstances. The manager of the mill said that a short circuit had sparked the fire, and as the spare parts to repair the mill were not available, the mill would stop for some time, so that everyone was forced to contract with the Qays and governor’s private mill, who in turn, would distribute flour and be in full control of the mills and bakeries.
It is indicated that the price of a flour sack in Deir Ezzor city runs from 8 to 10 thousand SYP, while the bag of bread (16 loaves) is 100 Syrian pounds.