The local council in the city of al- Lataminah, rural Hama, is seeking to provide the basic services within the limited resources it has, in conjunction with the return of the residents to the city, which has been severely destroyed by military operations, causing displacement for years.
The Education Office of the al-Lataminah Council announced the restoration of one of the least affected schools in the city to encourage people to return, as the head of the Education Office, Anas Alaiwi, has told Enab Baladi.
He added that the “Martyr Abdel Aal Salloum” elementary school, which the local council restored, was partially destroyed, while the rest of the city’s schools are completely destroyed, pointing out that the local council’s resources are not enough to restore them.
The school is decided to be reopened as soon as possible, to bridge the educational gap that the students are suffering through the current school year, which began on September 1 in Northern Syria.
Alaiwi appealed to relief organizations and educational entities operating in Northern Syria to organize service and educational projects in al-Lataminah, which has been heavily bombed during the past years, being a confrontation line between the Syrian regime and the opposition factions.
The al-Lataminah’s People Return after Idlib Deal
Dozens of civilians displaced from al-Lataminah returned to their city after the Russian-Syrian air attacks against it tuned down due to the Russian-Turkish agreement concerning Idlib.
As the Deputy Director of the al-Lataminah Local Council Ahmad Haroun has told Enab Baladi, about 400 to 600 families returned to the city since the Idlib deal, signed by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in mid-September, providing for the establishment of a demilitarized zone in the governorate of Idlib between the areas controlled by the Syrian regime and those opposition-held, with 15-20 kilometers width under the supervision of both sides.
Today, the residents of al-Lataminah are living without electricity and water, amid the closure of shops, markets and schools, after the majority of the service, education facilities and medical centers were rendered out of service during the ongoing bombardment campaigns.
The local council appeals to civil society organizations to improve the service situation in the city, to encourage people to return.
The Free Hama Provincial Council estimated that 70% of the residents of the areas in the western and northern Hama villages had fled their villages and homes to escape the continuous shelling of the area during the past years.
The al-Lataminah is one of the most important cities in rural Hama that are controlled by the “Free Army,” which Assad’s forces have repeatedly attempted to storm, targeting it with various types of weapons, committing massacres against civilians, without succeeding in controlling it.
However, Enab Baladi’s reporter in rural Hama, said that artillery shelling continues to target the city of al-Lataminah in the northern countryside of Hama, without causing casualties or injuries among civilians.