A year after dictator Bashar al-Assad's ouster in Syria, little has changed in Amina Beqai's desperate quest. She types her missing husband's name yet again into an internet search box, hoping in vain for answers to a 13-year-old question.

Damascus

One year after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, families of Syrians who disappeared under his regime are still searching for answers about their loved ones. Despite the establishment of a national commission to investigate enforced disappearances, families report little progress and a lack of accountability. 

The commission, led by the new government, has partnered with international organizations but has yet to deliver concrete results, leaving an estimated 150,000 cases unresolved. Rights groups and families express frustration over the slow process and limited access to information, as many continue to hope for closure.

A year after Assad, families of missing detainees in limbo

Amina Bikai is searching her missing husband's name on the internet. A year after Bashar al-Assad was ousted, she's no closer to knowing what happened to Mahmood, who was arrested by security forces at their home near Damascus in April 2012. Bikai's brother Ahmad was detained that August and is also missing. A national commission established in May has been gathering evidence of enforced disappearances under Assad, but has yet to offer families clues. Is it thinkable that they didn't even get the documents of these guys? Showing us the truth is what we want. They did not hold anyone accountable. An estimated 150,000 people vanished in Assad's notorious prisons. His overthrow stirred hope. As rebels swept through Syria, doors to the jails were flung open. On December 9, a day after Assad fled to Moscow, families flocked to Sednaya. The human slaughterhouse Amnesty International dubbed it for torture and executions at an industrial scale. There was no sign of Bikai's loved ones. When the prisons were open and they didn't come back, that was the shock. That was when the hope ended. The national commission was established by new president Ahmad al-Shara'a, the former rebel leader. It has signed agreements with international organizations like the Red Cross, seeking help with training personnel and access to DNA labs. Next year, it hopes to launch a database of the missing, using documents from prisons and other sites, exhuming the mass graves needs more technical know-how, and may wait another year. Zeyna Shahla is the commission's media adviser. When it comes to the pain of the families, maybe we really are being slow, but this file needs progress to come carefully in a way that is scientific and systemic and not rushed. Rights groups built up expertise on enforced disappearances in exile during the Assad years. But they say the new government's centralized approach has excluded them, slowed progress, and left families in limbo. The commission has monopolized detention-related documents, activists say. It has urged families not to believe documents posted online, like the scans of prison documents and photos of dead detainees that Bekai scours obsessively. It has even threatened legal action against the outlets that have posted them. Alia Daraji last saw her son Yazan in November 2014, as he left home to meet friends near Damascus. She has joined Truth Tents, sit-ins demanding information on disappeared Syrians that were unthinkable under Assad. Solidarity helps, but it's closure she yearns for. We were hoping to find their bodies, to bury them, or to find out where they are. But no. What can a Truth Tent do now?

Thailand has launched airstrikes on Cambodian military sites as renewed border violence threatens a U.S.-backed peace deal.

Bangkok

Renewed border violence threatens Thai-Cambodia peace

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Johannesburg

Middle East Conflict

South Africa withdraws 90-days visa exemption for Palestinians

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Okinawa

Chinese fighter jet locks radar on Japan planes

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Porto-Novo

Benin coup attempt thwarted by soldiers loyal to Republic

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Hong Kong Island

Hong Kong holds tightly guarded election amid anger over deadly fire

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Kyiv

Ukraine Invasion

U.S.-led peace talks wrap as Russia launches strike on Ukraine

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Moscow

Russia targets Ukraine's energy infrastructure

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Washington

Pete Hegseth on boat strikes: "We will find you and we will sink you"

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Ponce

U.S boosts military presence in Puerto Rico amid Venezuela tensions

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Jakarta

Indonesian families mourn loved ones as flood deaths pass 900

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that he had had a long and "substantive" phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Zelenskyy says he had 'substantive' phone call with U.S's Witkoff

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Hollywood

Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros. sparks industry concern

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Judge orders D.C pipe bomb suspect to remain in jail

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New Orleans

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Bilbao

Influential architect Frank Gehry dies, 96

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Saulsville

Several killed in mass shooting west of South Africa's capital

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Delhi

Russia-India sign trade agreements despite pressure from the West

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Pentagon announces new boat strike

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Manhattan

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Tegucigalpa

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New York

New York Times sues Pentagon, Hegseth over press restrictions

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Trump insists Putin wants to end Ukraine war after Witkoff's trip

Democrats have released never-before-seen images in the Jeffrey Epstein case. They were taken at his private island estate. It comes as the Trump administration faces a deadline to release the full Epstein case files in two weeks.

Breakdown