Syria confirms closure of camp for displaced, calls it end of ‘humanitarian tragedy’

ANKARA

Syria on Saturday announced the closure of a camp for people displaced by the country’s 13-year civil war, calling it the end of a grave tragedy.

“The closure of the Rukban camp marks the end of one of the harshest humanitarian tragedies experienced by our displaced people,” Raed al-Saleh, the country’s emergency and disaster management minister, said in a statement. “We hope this step will mark the beginning of a process that ends the suffering in other camps and returns people to their homes with dignity and safety.”

His statement on X included photos showing the camp completely emptied of displaced Syrians.

The closure comes months after the December collapse of the Assad regime. Since then, families who took refuge in the camp began returning to their towns and villages.

The camp, an informal, unregulated settlement, was located in a demilitarized zone on the northeastern border between Syria and Jordan. Thousands of displaced Syrians waiting for permission to enter Jordan lived in the camp.

Following a 2016 suicide bombing on a Jordanian border outpost, killing seven soldiers and injuring 15 others, Jordan sealed its northern border and halted refugee admissions, cutting off humanitarian access to the camp.

Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia in December, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in power since 1963.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led anti-regime forces to oust Assad, was declared president for a transitional period in January.

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