Over two million Syrians who had fled their homes during their country’s war have returned since the ousting of Bashar al-Assad, UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said on Thursday, June 19th, ahead of a visit to Syria.
The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011, displaced half of the population internally or abroad.
But Assad’s overthrow on December 8 last year at the hands of Islamist forces sparked hopes of return.
“Over two million Syrian refugees and displaced have returned home since December,” Grandi wrote on X during a visit to neighbouring Lebanon, which hosts about 1.5 million Syrian refugees.
After 14 years of war, many returnees face the reality of finding their homes and property badly damaged or destroyed.
But with the recent lifting of Western sanctions on Syria, new authorities hope for international support to launch reconstruction, which the UN estimates could cost more than $400 billion.
Western sanctions have been lifted despite the fact that Syria’s new president is a former terrorist, and Islamist fighters have been involved in the massacre of thousands of Christians and Alawites in recent months.
