As residents of Damascus and its surrounding countryside attempt to rebuild their lives after years of repression and destruction, a familiar fear continues to resurface. The collapse of residential buildings has become a recurring reality, as though the physical memory of war refuses to fade.
In the historic quarters of Damascus, repeated collapses have affected old houses and heritage buildings, largely as a result of long-term neglect during the years of rule by the former regime, compounded by harsh weather conditions. These incidents have caused material damage and reignited anxiety among residents who had hoped that the worst was behind them.
In the Damascus countryside, buildings previously damaged by military operations are now giving way, intensifying fears among returnees. Warnings of widespread structural cracks have raised concerns that further collapses may be imminent, particularly in heavily affected areas.
Twelve building collapses in less than two months
The Media Office of the Syrian Civil Defence told +963 that emergency teams responded to twelve building-collapse incidents between early December 2025 and mid-January 2026. Eight of these occurred in Damascus and four in its countryside, resulting in the deaths of four people, including one woman.
According to the Civil Defence, the collapses were caused by the deterioration of buildings either damaged by previous shelling or weakened by age and prolonged exposure to weather conditions. The office noted that partial collapses were recorded on 18 January 2026 in the neighbourhoods of Al-Shaghour, Al-Qanawat, and Al-Midan following heavy rainfall.
During the same period, additional collapses were documented in Al-Qaboun, Al-Midan, Yarmouk Camp, Al-Qaymariyya, and several districts of the Old City of Damascus. In the countryside, teams recorded the collapse of a building in Douma that killed three people, as well as two buildings in al-Hajar al-Aswad and one in Darayya.
The causes of these collapses include prior war damage, the absence of maintenance and follow-up for many years, and the impact of heavy rainfall, cold weather, and frost on already cracked walls. The Civil Defence stressed that these combined factors make collapses both predictable and recurrent, particularly in war-damaged areas of the Damascus countryside.
To date, neither the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management nor the Civil Defence possesses a comprehensive map identifying buildings at risk of collapse in the countryside. Intervention remains reactive, triggered by reports of cracks or structural damage. Teams conduct on-site assessments, evacuate residents from dangerous buildings and surrounding areas, install warning signs, and restrict access to high-risk zones.
The Civil Defence has repeatedly urged residents not to live in damaged or cracked buildings, especially those previously subjected to shelling, and to report any signs of danger immediately. It has also warned that continued rainfall and climate fluctuations may further increase the likelihood of collapses in the coming period.
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Limited assessment and absence of comprehensive plans
The Damascus Countryside branch of the Engineers’ Syndicate told +963 that building safety assessments are conducted through technical inspections carried out by an occupational safety committee composed of representatives from the syndicate and the governorate. These inspections target buildings at risk of collapse or those with structural violations that threaten public safety.
Inspections are initiated upon requests from municipalities, complaints by residents, or applications from prospective buyers, and are conducted for a fee. The syndicate noted that no general plans currently exist to remove buildings in destroyed neighbourhoods, with intervention limited to cases where a structure is proven to be at imminent risk of collapse.
In such cases, the committee prepares a technical report submitted to the relevant authorities, after which demolition is carried out in coordination with the governorate, the Engineers’ Syndicate, and emergency services, including the Civil Defence.
Regarding damage documentation, the syndicate pointed to the absence of a unified database covering damaged buildings across towns in the Damascus countryside. Existing efforts are described as local initiatives undertaken by individual towns according to their limited capacities, without a standardised engineering assessment model approved by the governorate.
Harasta is cited as an exception, where most damaged neighbourhoods underwent engineering assessments by a specialised committee and were included in a modelling project. However, completion of this project remains contingent on securing sufficient funding.
According to previous statistics issued by the Damascus Countryside Governorate, approximately 70 per cent of residential neighbourhoods in the region sustained damage as a result of shelling and military operations. Entire areas were almost completely destroyed, including Eastern Ghouta, Darayya, al-Zabadani, Douma, Harasta, Wadi Barada, and southern Damascus.
Accumulated engineering causes
The war did not only claim human lives but also inflicted severe damage on infrastructure. Old buildings were subjected to direct shelling and deliberate destruction, followed by years of neglect. Studies indicate that reinforced concrete in damaged buildings suffered extensive corrosion due to bombardment, leading to material degradation and foundational damage caused by repeated explosions.
Civil engineer Mohammad Ali told +963 that the corrosion of concrete structures resulting from repeated shelling is the primary cause of collapses. Reinforced concrete experienced severe deterioration, leading to cracks and damage in load-bearing structures that were never properly repaired.
He added that damage to foundations caused by repeated explosions is particularly alarming, especially in buildings constructed on weak soil or those exposed to nearby blasts. Ali also pointed to post-war misuse of buildings as an additional factor, noting that many damaged structures were reoccupied without adequate technical inspections, placing further strain on already weakened frameworks.
Figures and assessments
In early 2019, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) published an atlas detailing the extent of destruction across Syrian provinces and cities. The figures do not include all destroyed buildings, as they predate the military operations carried out by former regime forces and Russia in Idlib and parts of Hama and Aleppo between April 2019 and March 2020.
According to the study, Eastern Ghouta recorded 9,353 completely destroyed buildings, 13,661 severely damaged buildings, and 11,122 partially damaged ones, bringing the total number of affected structures to 34,136.
In Yarmouk Camp and al-Hajar al-Aswad in southern Damascus, 2,109 buildings were completely destroyed, 1,765 were severely damaged, and 1,615 partially damaged, for a total of 5,489 affected buildings. In al-Zabadani, 659 buildings were completely destroyed, 1,251 severely damaged, and 1,454 partially damaged, bringing the total to 3,364.
A World Bank report titled “The Syrian Physical Damage Assessment” estimated the cost of reconstruction at approximately USD 216 billion. The report assessed direct material losses to infrastructure and residential and non-residential buildings at around USD 108 billion.
Infrastructure accounted for the largest share of damage, representing 48 per cent of total losses valued at USD 52 billion, followed by residential buildings at USD 33 billion and non-residential buildings at USD 23 billion. The provinces of Aleppo, Damascus Countryside, and Homs were identified as the most severely affected in terms of overall destruction.
