Enab Baladi – Besan Khalaf
The phenomenon of cable and electricity network theft is spreading in various areas of western rural Damascus, causing power outages that can last for days or even weeks.
Residents of Jdeidet Artouz and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya in western rural Damascus have complained about frequent electricity outages.
The emergency management in Jdeidet Artouz clarified that the electricity outages are due to the theft of electrical cables and network lines for the purpose of selling copper.
Salman Saqr, an employee in the electricity emergency department of Jdeidet Artouz, told Enab Baladi that the thefts sometimes occur by deliberately causing a fault, for example, a thief might use a wooden stick to jam the electricity cables on top of each other, then wait for the electrical network to explode and fall to the ground so that he can steal the network and cables.
He added that what exacerbates the crisis is the process of obtaining new materials to replace the stolen ones.
The procedure requires police reports, assessing the damages and the scale of the theft, and then submitting a list of the materials needed to the electricity directorate, according to Saqr.
Theft of copper and looting
In the months following the fall of the Assad regime, there was a security breakdown and a noticeable increase in electrical cable thefts, in addition to cutting down electricity poles, resulting in power outages.
Stealing copper cables and selling them became a source of income for a group of thieves, amid systematic “tafish” operations (a term that refers to looting from areas controlled by the regime after clashes with opposition factions).
With the fall of the regime and the decline of the “tafish” phenomenon, copper thieves began to prey on government electricity by stealing the cables connected to citizens’ homes.
Theft of copper during Assad’s rule
In April 2024, the electrical network in the countryside of Masyaf in Hama governorate was subject to the largest theft of low-voltage copper wires.
A source in the Hama Electricity Company stated at the time that the incident occurred on the main road between Kafr Kamrah and Kafram, where a four-wire copper network approximately 100 meters long was stolen.
In Latakia, losses were estimated at 1.3 billion Syrian pounds in 2021, with 92 seizures valued at 150 million Syrian pounds, related to thefts of electrical cables.
In June 2024, the Syrian People’s Assembly under the previous regime approved a draft law to tighten penalties for stealing any component of the electrical network or telecommunications network.
The law stipulated punishment for anyone who steals any component of the electrical network or telecommunications network or transfers, hides, possesses, sells, buys, or alters the stolen materials by any means to conceal their origin and facilitate their sale, according to reports from the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
Cable thieves deprive western rural Damascus of electricity Enab Baladi.
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