“At least we have something left,” he said, standing in a room with clothes, toys, ornaments and damaged pictures strewn across the floor.
“Others have nothing. They lost their homes, they lost their lives.”
Ismail, 44, the Imam of a nearby mosque, considers himself one of the luckiest people in Marawi. The city was devastated by more than 150 days of battles between government forces and pro-Islamic State militants that killed more than 1,100 people and displaced some 350,000.
His house is in Marawi’s safe zone, an area long abandoned by residents but untouched by unrelenting shelling and military air strikes that have all but flattened the city’s commercial heart, destroying thousands of homes, shops and vehicles.
Six days after troops killed the last remaining rebels, Ismail was among about 4,000 people allowed to return to their homes on Sunday in Marawi’s Basak Malutlot area.
Many like him have discovered their houses were looted and left in disarray.
“I opened the door and I was shocked, but I‘m still happy to be home,” he said.
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