About Half of Syrian Al-Diabiya Residents Return Home After City Liberation

AL-DIABIYA (Sputnik) - About half of the residents of the Syrian city of Al-Diabiya in Damascus province have returned to their homes after the city was freed from the militants, the local administration said on Monday.

"Before the war, there were 70,000 people living in Al-Diabiya. Now 35,000 have already returned," Abdullah Ahmad, the head of the city administration, said.

The official added that the authorities were restoring the infrastructure in order to facilitate the residents' return.

"Our task is to restore everything for the normal life and to improve living conditions here as soon as possible. People should understand that they are not asked to return to the debris. Electricity is already supplied and we are also working on distributing food," Ahmad said.

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Syria has been devastated by years of violent civil war which had prompted millions of people to flee hostilities from the areas where they lived to other locations in Syria and outside the country. The United Nations estimates, there are over 5.6 million Syrian refugees abroad and about 6.6 million displaced across the crisis-torn country.