Zürcher Nachrichten - Syrians return to homes devastated by war

EUR -
AED 4.326661
AFN 82.273942
ALL 97.898814
AMD 452.629971
ANG 2.108041
AOA 1080.157743
ARS 1459.669854
AUD 1.797573
AWG 2.12321
AZN 2.007149
BAM 1.955418
BBD 2.377585
BDT 144.451806
BGN 1.956287
BHD 0.443541
BIF 3508.115287
BMD 1.177925
BND 1.499675
BOB 8.137239
BRL 6.38558
BSD 1.177545
BTN 100.498238
BWP 15.596956
BYN 3.853566
BYR 23087.331819
BZD 2.365338
CAD 1.603215
CDF 3398.314319
CHF 0.935645
CLF 0.028547
CLP 1095.459023
CNY 8.440309
CNH 8.439249
COP 4712.218658
CRC 594.671311
CUC 1.177925
CUP 31.215015
CVE 110.243483
CZK 24.646321
DJF 209.341311
DKK 7.461454
DOP 70.474749
DZD 152.393309
EGP 58.022699
ERN 17.668876
ETB 163.423335
FJD 2.637615
FKP 0.862798
GBP 0.862949
GEL 3.204416
GGP 0.862798
GHS 12.187363
GIP 0.862798
GMD 84.22618
GNF 10213.006627
GTQ 9.054041
GYD 246.364006
HKD 9.246182
HNL 30.765995
HRK 7.539079
HTG 154.606543
HUF 399.203326
IDR 19107.122931
ILS 3.944853
IMP 0.862798
INR 100.936107
IQD 1542.566183
IRR 49620.09495
ISK 142.446936
JEP 0.862798
JMD 187.953315
JOD 0.835195
JPY 170.167817
KES 152.141258
KGS 103.010002
KHR 4731.076589
KMF 492.373101
KPW 1060.089343
KRW 1605.453457
KWD 0.359609
KYD 0.981408
KZT 611.529492
LAK 25374.508866
LBP 105506.967917
LKR 353.301043
LRD 236.098907
LSL 20.713857
LTL 3.478107
LVL 0.712516
LYD 6.342762
MAD 10.569437
MDL 19.835707
MGA 5298.853309
MKD 61.531087
MMK 2473.232981
MNT 4226.84635
MOP 9.521142
MRU 46.736878
MUR 52.948179
MVR 18.14445
MWK 2042.018775
MXN 21.946398
MYR 4.972067
MZN 75.340533
NAD 20.713418
NGN 1802.15516
NIO 43.331543
NOK 11.881146
NPR 160.792204
NZD 1.943451
OMR 0.452414
PAB 1.17757
PEN 4.175585
PGK 4.864051
PHP 66.570482
PKR 334.279155
PLN 4.244121
PYG 9383.969276
QAR 4.30386
RON 5.059075
RSD 117.399127
RUB 92.591703
RWF 1692.769606
SAR 4.417612
SBD 9.820272
SCR 16.604287
SDG 707.348348
SEK 11.264384
SGD 1.499974
SHP 0.925664
SLE 26.444855
SLL 24700.50455
SOS 672.95437
SRD 44.036774
STD 24380.6712
SVC 10.303989
SYP 15315.416699
SZL 20.696906
THB 38.082753
TJS 11.451765
TMT 4.134517
TND 3.430858
TOP 2.758823
TRY 46.927009
TTD 7.986272
TWD 34.086841
TZS 3117.621455
UAH 49.110415
UGX 4224.085893
USD 1.177925
UYU 47.260776
UZS 14787.113854
VES 128.951587
VND 30838.07893
VUV 140.328108
WST 3.064638
XAF 655.828995
XAG 0.031783
XAU 0.000353
XCD 3.183402
XDR 0.815779
XOF 655.828995
XPF 119.331742
YER 285.234989
ZAR 20.739486
ZMK 10602.74357
ZMW 28.525827
ZWL 379.291399
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Syrians return to homes devastated by war
Syrians return to homes devastated by war / Photo: LOUAI BESHARA - AFP

Syrians return to homes devastated by war

When Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi returned to his house near Damascus after Bashar al-Assad's ouster, he saw unfathomable destruction.

Text size:

Now, cushions and plants brighten the wreckage that he is determined to call home again.

"As soon as we found out that... the regime was gone and that people were coming back... we sorted our things" and packed the car, said Kafozi, 74, standing in the wreckage of his home in a former rebel bastion near the capital.

"I had to come home and stay by any means," he told AFP. "We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this."

Plastic sheeting covers windows in what remains of the home where he and his family are living with no electricity, running water or even a proper bathroom, in the town of Hammuriyeh.

Syria's war began in 2011 when Assad unleashed a crackdown on democracy protests, prompting soldiers to defect from the army and civilians to take up weapons.

When Eastern Ghouta, where Hammuriyeh is located, fell out of Assad's control, the government imposed a siege and launched a ferocious air and ground assault.

Assad's forces were accused of conducting chemical attacks on rebel areas of Eastern Ghouta.

In 2018, tens of thousands of fighters and civilians were bussed to opposition-held northwest Syria under evacuation deals brokered by Assad backer Russia.

Among those who left the area at the time were Kafozi and his family.

His granddaughter Baraa, now eight and carrying a bright pink school bag, "was an infant in our arms" when they left, he said.

Fast-forward to December 2024, Assad was ousted in an offensive spearheaded by Islamist fighters, allowing displaced Syrians to return to their homes.

Kafozi said that when Baraa first saw the damage, "she just stared and said, 'what's this destroyed house of ours? Why did we come? Let's go back.'"

"I told her, this is our home, we have to come back to it," he said.

- No regrets -

Until their return to Hammuriyeh, his family sought refuge in the northwest and survived a 2023 earthquake that hit Syria and neighbouring Turkey.

Despite the damage to his home, Kafozi said: "I don't regret coming back."

Outside, children played in the dusty street, while a truck delivered gas bottles and people passed on bicycles.

Next door, Kafozi's nephew Ahmed, 40, has also returned with his wife and four children, but they are staying with relatives because of the damage to their home.

From the shell of a bedroom, the day worker looked out at a bleak landscape of buildings crumpled and torn by bombing.

"Our hope is that there will be reconstruction in the country," he said.

"I don't think an individual effort can bear this, it's too big, the damage in the country is great."

Syria's 13-year-war has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions more and ravaged the country's infrastructure and industry.

Local official Baibars Zein, 46, said bus transport had been arranged for people displaced from Hammuriyeh.

"We've taken around 106 families -- the total number of families that want to come back is around 2,000," he said near a mosque with a damaged minaret.

- 'Oppression is gone' -

Among those who returned was Zein's brother Saria, who left his wife and five children in northwest Syria to try to make their flat inhabitable before they return.

"This damage is from the battle that happened and regime bombardment -- they bombed us with barrels and missiles," said Saria, 47, pointing to cracked walls.

Rights groups documented the extensive use during the war by Assad's army of so-called barrel bombs, an improvised explosive dropped from planes.

To Saria, the devastation was a grim reminder of a 2015 strike that killed his seven-year-old daughter.

His wife narrowly missed being hit by shrapnel that took a chunk out of the wall, he said.

Saria hopes to finish basic repairs within a fortnight, but a lot of work will remain.

His children "are really excited, they call me and say 'Dad, we want to come back,'" he said.

"We are very very optimistic -- the oppression is gone," he said. "That's the most important thing."

E.Leuenberger--NZN