The UN says it is almost impossible to imagine people returning to Syria’s ruined Yarmouk Palestinian camp, a day after the government recaptured it from jihadists.
Syrian troops seized control of Yarmouk and other neighborhoods in the south of the capital Damascus on Monday after a month-long assault against the Islamic State group.
Yarmouk has been so heavily battered by fighting that it was hard to picture daily life restarting there, the United Nations’ refugee agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, says on Tuesday.
“Yarmuk was once the thriving home of 160,000 Palestinians. Today it lies in ruins, with hardly a house untouched by the conflict,” spokesman Chris Gunness says.
“The public health system, water, electricity, basic services for life are severely damaged. The debris of this pitiless conflict is everywhere,” he tells AFP. “In that environment, it is hard to see how people can go back.”
— AFP
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