ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Around 1,000 families displaced from the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria and nearby are set to return in the next few days after nearly a decade of displacement, marking the third convoy of returned families this year, media affiliated with the Rojava (northeast Syria) administration reported on Monday.

“One thousand families from Afrin and its districts are expected to return to their homes within a few days,” Rojava-based Ronahi TV said, citing local, well-informed sources.

The move comes in implementation of the January 29 ceasefire and integration agreement signed between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Damascus authorities following a period of violence. 

One of the key provisions of the agreement is the safe return of the displaced residents in Afrin and Sari Kani (Ras al-Ayn).

Another batch of 200 families returned to Afrin on April 4, in coordination between the Rojava administration and the Syrian government.

The first convoy of IDPs returned to the Kurdish-majority city on March 9, consisting of 400 families who departed from Hasaka, where they had settled after multiple displacements amid intense clashes in January.

Afrin, a Kurdish-majority city in northern Syria, was taken over in 2018 by Turkey and its proxies, leading to the displacement of more than 137,000 native residents.

Following the 2018 offensive, residents fled to Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods, where they were once again subjected to hardship and displacement after attacks by factions affiliated with Damascus in early January, forcing them to relocate multiple times before reaching areas then held by the SDF.