21 August 2025
GENEVA – UN experts* today sounded the alarm over a wave of armed attacks on Syrian Druze communities in and around Suweida Governorate since 13 July 2025, with reports of killings, enforced disappearances, abductions, looting, destruction of property, and sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls.
“We are gravely concerned by reported attacks targeting the Druze minority for their faith and other grounds, including the forced shaving of religious men’s moustaches and hateful rhetoric on social media portraying Druze as traitors and infidels to be killed, and calling for the abduction and enslavement of Druze women,” the experts said.
The experts noted that intense sectarian clashes triggered by looting and retaliations between Bedouin and Druze communities escalated into widespread violence involving local militias, Syrian interim authorities’ forces and affiliated armed groups. Attacks on the Ta’ara, Al Doura and Al Douweira villages reportedly involved heavy artillery, machine guns, and looting, killing 1,000 people, including at least 539 identified Druze civilians – among them 39 women and 21 children. At least 196 people, including eight children and 30 women, were reportedly extrajudicially executed and over 33 villages burned.
“The scale of violence reported – including massacres, looting of homes, shops and livestock, and use of stolen phones for extortion – points to a targeted campaign against the Druze minority, exacerbated by incitement to hatred on media and social media platforms portraying them as Israeli allies,” the experts said. “Druze survivors, including university students in Damascus, Homs, Aleppo and Latakia face ongoing harassment and fear for their safety.”
The experts pointed to the reported abduction of at least 105 Druze women and girls by armed groups affiliated with the Syrian interim authorities, with 80 still missing. Some women who were released cannot return home due to safety fears. In at least three cases, Druze women were allegedly raped before being executed. Seven hundred and sixty three persons, including women, remain missing.
“These reported violations expose an apparent systemic failure to protect minorities and address gender-based violence, with no thorough, independent and impartial investigations into extrajudicial killings, torture or abductions,” the experts said. “Reports that the interim authorities’ forces aided attacks have entrenched impunity and fear, silencing victims’ families and obstructing efforts to locate the disappeared.”
The experts are monitoring the situation of an estimated 192,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Suweida, Dar’a and Homs, where already scarce resources are under severe strain. Intermittent clashes were reported in the locations of Najran and Laha in As-Sweida Governorate, causing individuals to move to relatively safer nearby areas. Communities displaced more than once were also reported in Najran and nearby areas following renewed clashes on 9 August 2025. Extensive damage resulting from restrictive measures taken by the interim Syrian authorities, ground fighting and Israeli airstrikes has severely disrupted essential services across much of Sweida city, leaving power, water systems, largely inoperable. Many displaced families are living in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions without adequate food, clean water, or medical care. Reports of unburied bodies in residential areas raise serious public health concerns.
They called on interim authorities to ensure that internally displaced persons can swiftly access essential humanitarian assistance.
“The Syrian interim authorities must allow prompt, independent investigations, prosecute perpetrators, and establish the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared,” the experts said.
Authorities must protect all minority communities including the Druze, halt the incitement of violence and facilitate safe returns or durable solutions for IDPs, they said.
“The rights to life, liberty and security, and freedom from torture and extrajudicial killing must be upheld, with special protections for women and girls,” the experts said.
“Addressing the conditions conducive to terrorism, including prolonged unresolved conflicts, discrimination, and exclusion, is essential to effectively counter terrorism and prevent recurrence.”
The experts are in contact with the interim authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic on these issues.
*The experts:
Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences;
Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions;
Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism;
Bernard Duhaime, Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence.
Nazila Ghanea, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief;
Nicolas Levrat, Special Rapporteur on minority issues;
Paula Gaviria, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons;
Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
Gabriella Citroni (Chair-Rapporteur), Grażyna Baranowska (Vice-Chair), Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez, Aua Baldé and Mohammed Al-Obaidi, Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances;
