Abou Shehab in front of his ruined house, after 11 years of exile, in Tremseh, near Hama in Syria, on May 22, 2025. (Credit: Amélie Zaccour/L’Orient-Le Jour)
Through the valleys and cereal fields, a procession of trucks and coaches broke the calm of the village of Tremseh on Friday, May 16, in the countryside of Hama. Amid the cheers of the locals, 100 families from the vast Atmeh refugee camp in the province of Idlib returned home after a decade of exile. That is nearly 1,000 people in total, according to the NGO Smile Younited, which organized the evacuation of the tents. It is one of the largest return convoys since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime on Dec. 8. Yasser Abou Zaid, 40, was on the journey with his wife and his eight children. "From the first day in Idlib, I dreamed of returning to Tremseh," said the family man in an agricultural region where the attachment to the land is strong.Yasser Abou Zaid, his wife and two of their children in front of part of their...
Through the valleys and cereal fields, a procession of trucks and coaches broke the calm of the village of Tremseh on Friday, May 16, in the countryside of Hama. Amid the cheers of the locals, 100 families from the vast Atmeh refugee camp in the province of Idlib returned home after a decade of exile. That is nearly 1,000 people in total, according to the NGO Smile Younited, which organized the evacuation of the tents. It is one of the largest return convoys since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime on Dec. 8. Yasser Abou Zaid, 40, was on the journey with his wife and his eight children. "From the first day in Idlib, I dreamed of returning to Tremseh," said the family man in an agricultural region where the attachment to the land is strong.Yasser Abou Zaid, his wife and two of their children in front of part of their...