Mohammad Marwan remembers stumbling out of Saydnaya prison barefoot and disoriented a year ago after rebel fighters approaching Damascus yanked open the gates. Detained in 2018 for dodging compulsory military service, he had been transferred through four jails before ending up at Saydnaya, a facility long associated with brutal treatment under the regime that was removed from power.
Marwan described new inmates being met with beatings and electric shocks. “They told us, ‘You have no rights here, and we won’t call an ambulance unless there’s a corpse,’” he recalled. Returning home to relatives in Homs on Dec. 8, 2024 brought joy, but the months since have been spent piecing his life and health back together: chest pain and breathing trouble diagnosed as tuberculosis, crippling anxiety and sleeplessness.
He is receiving TB treatment and psychological support at a Homs center for former detainees and says his condition has slowly improved. “We were almost dead in Saydnaya,” he said. “Now we are alive again.” Still, economic hardship persists: day labor often pays the equivalent of about $5, and Marwan plans to finish treatment before trying to find better-paid work in Lebanon.
Marwan’s story is one strand in a national picture that remains fractured and dangerous. Thousands turned out to mark the anniversary of Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow, but 14 years of civil war left deep wounds — an estimated half-million dead, millions displaced and a shattered state infrastructure.
The regime’s collapse caught many off guard. In late November 2024, forces from northwest Syria led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), now under interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa, launched an offensive toward Aleppo to blunt a feared government push on Idlib. The Syrian army collapsed in Aleppo with little resistance and then in Hama and Homs, clearing a path to Damascus. Rebels entered the capital on Dec. 8 as Assad was evacuated by Russian forces; he is now living in exile in Moscow. Russia — long a key backer of Assad — did not mount a defense on his behalf and has since begun dealings with the new authorities while maintaining its coastal bases.
Hassan Abdul Ghani, a spokesperson for the former Defense Ministry, said HTS and allied groups had rearmed after losing ground in 2019–2020 and launched the Aleppo offensive to widen the front and safeguard reclaimed territories. He added the timing was chosen while Russia was focused on Ukraine and after Hezbollah had been weakened by clashes with Israel.
Since taking power, Ahmad al-Sharaa has sought to restore Syria’s international standing, engaging Western and Arab governments that had largely isolated Assad’s government. His diplomatic outreach included a November visit to Washington — the first trip by a Syrian head of state to the U.S. since Syria’s independence in 1946. But diplomatic openings have been accompanied by a resurgence of sectarian and local violence: pro-government Sunni militias have been accused of killing hundreds of Alawite and Druze civilians, and Druze groups in the Sweida region have formed their own local administration and armed forces.
Relations with Kurdish-led authorities in the northeast remain tense despite a March agreement intended to fold some units into national structures. Israel, uneasy about an Islamist-led Damascus, seized a former U.N. buffer zone in southern Syria and has continued airstrikes and cross-border operations, complicating negotiations over security arrangements.
The war’s physical remnants litter the country. The Mines Advisory Group reported at least 590 people killed by landmines since the regime’s fall, including 167 children — a pace that could make Syria the world’s deadliest country for landmine casualties in 2025. Economically, the country is fragile even after most Western sanctions were eased. Promises of Gulf-financed reconstruction have largely failed to materialize; the World Bank estimates rebuilding will cost around $216 billion.
Reconstruction so far has been piecemeal and largely paid for by homeowners and small businesses. Yarmouk, the Palestinian camp on Damascus’s edge, remains badly damaged after years of militant occupation and bombardment. Some residents have returned, patching structurally sound buildings and reopening shops, but full-scale rebuilding of the most devastated neighborhoods is far off.
“We hoped after a year they would clear the ruins and build towers,” said Maher al-Homsi, repairing his home despite having no running water. His neighbor Etab al-Hawari urged realism: “They inherited an empty country — banks are depleted, infrastructure looted, homes stripped.”
For some Syrians, daily life feels freer than under the Assad era. “There is some freedom now,” said Bassam Dimashqi, a dentist in Damascus, but he and others emphasize that security is the precondition for investment and recovery. “The state must guarantee security, and once that is in place, other things will follow.”
The U.N. refugee agency reports that more than 1 million refugees and nearly 2 million internally displaced people have returned since the regime fell. Yet without jobs and meaningful rebuilding, many returnees may be forced to leave again.
As Syria marks twelve months since Assad’s ouster, the country is living with the relief of a regime change but also with persistent insecurity, sectarian wounds, economic collapse and daunting reconstruction needs. For former prisoners like Marwan, personal recovery is tangible but fragile; for the nation, the path to stability and rebuilding remains long and uncertain.