Syria experienced another 12 months of heartbreak in 2022, the country’s 11th year of conflict. While the large-scale regime and Russian assaults on opposition areas have decreased, violence has continued to plague the country, with 64 civilians killed in November alone.
Instead, other disasters have befallen Syrians, including an outbreak of cholera which has cost 100 lives, while an economic crisis shattered the lives of millions, from regime loyalists to the millions displaced in opposition areas.
Instability has also rocked southern provinces with assassinations and small-scale uprisings hitting Daraa province, already drowned in a deluge of the drug captagon.
We look at the three key events that will mark 2023 in Syria.
"Living conditions haven't been this bad since the end of the Ottoman Empire, which is over a century ago. We've never seen people in regime-held areas living in such conditions"
Economic crisis
Syria's economy, long in the doldrums, has been hit by a major crisis, caused by a depreciating lira and other factors, plunging 90 percent of the population below the poverty line.
The sight of children rooting through garbage is now said to be a common sight in cities such as Damascus, where poverty is worse than at any point in living memory.
"Living conditions haven't been this bad since the end of the Ottoman Empire, which is over a century ago. We've never seen people in regime-held areas living in such conditions,” said Karam Shaar, Syria programme manager at the Observatory of Political and Economic Networks.
The situation in regime areas has been made worse by uncontrollable inflation, sanctions, massive unemployment, and rampant corruption, with some saying Syria - if not already there - is close to becoming a failed state.
Shaar said that homes have access to electricity for minutes per day rather than hours, while public sector and other workers have chosen to stay at home, with the price of transport to their offices and factories more than they would be paid.