About 500 people and around 100 families have returned to their homes in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor Governorate under the supervision of Russian military police.
Abdullah Sheikh Salahal, the local elder, told reporters that the operation to ensure their return lasted more than three months. “People submitted the lists to Syria’s Reconciliation Committee. They were checked in a computer database. It turned out that all of them are civilians,” TASS quoted him as saying.
For his part, Deir ez-Zor Governor Abdul Majeed al-Kawakibi added that “thanks to Russia, more than 15,000 people have returned to their homes over the past two years after the liberation of Deir ez-Zor.”
The returning refugees were welcomed by representatives of the Syrian Reconciliation Committee and the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria.
“We are glad to meet them. Everyone will be provided with humanitarian aid, medical care, and they will return to civilian life,” Head of the Russian Reconciliation Center Sergei Zhmurin pledged.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, almost 700,000 people have returned to Syria since the fall of 2015.
