People return to ruined villages after ceasefire

(7 Mar 2020) Two days after a cease-fire deal brokered by Turkey and Russia people have been returning to their homes in northwest Syria.
The truce halted a terrifying campaign of bombing that killed hundreds and sent nearly a million people fleeing toward the Turkish border during the Russian-backed assault by Syrian government forces on the country’s last rebel stronghold.
Homes and buildings in the village of Sarmin had been badly damaged and destroyed by the conflict.
Majd Sammoud from Sarmin returned home to collect his belongings after he had not been able to enter the village for a month.
When he arrived at his home, he realised that “our house completely flattered to the ground”, making it impossible to salvage anything from the rubble.  
Homes and buildings were also flattened in Nairab.
The fighting in Idlib, the last opposition-controlled region of Syria, has already been catastrophic for the population.
Nearly a million people have fled their homes since Dec. 1, when the latest government offensive began, in the biggest single wave of displacement since Syria’s civil war began nine years ago.

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