Iraqi internally displaced children stand outside their muddy tent after heavy rainy at a camp for internally displaced persons in Youssifiyah, 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016.

More than 30,000 students, who were internally displaced, have now returned to schools after the areas in which their homes were located were liberated more than a year and a half ago from ISIS in the Iraqi eastern province of Diyala, an education committee said on Tuesday.

The liberation of Diyala took place in January 2015.

“The education committee in Diyala’s provincial council together with the General Directorate for Education have succeeded in securing the return of more than 30,000 displaced students to schools in the liberated areas with the launch of the academic year 2016-2017,” head of the committee Ahmed al-Rabii told the Arabic language website of Al-Sumaria satellite station.

The education committee stressed that the return of the students to schools was essential in reviving the liberated areas.

“The return of thousands of displaced students to school is a success that was achieved due to the cooperation of all government parties,” Rabii said.

“Dozens of schools in the liberated areas will open their doors to students after ensuring all basic needs,” Rabii said, but pointed out that “the educational institutions in the liberated areas had suffered from serious damage due to the operations undertaken by extremist groups after June 2014.”

ISIS spearheaded a militant offensive that began in the northern city of Mosul in June 2014 and swept down to overrun much of Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland.

[vuukle]

Related articles across the web

• Daesh Takfiri militants execute over 25 young men in northern Iraq
• IDPs decry poor feeding, stage protest
• Russian warplanes take off from Iran to target Islamic State in Syria
• Report: Wife of ISIS head in charge of prisons in Iraq found dead
• Shia militia attacks Sunni village near Tuz Khurmatu
• Airstrike hits Yemen hospital, aid group says
• Airstrike hits Yemen hospital, aid group says
• Iraq demands Saudi Arabia to replace its ambassador
• How the Islamic State Militant Group Was Founded, Gained Influence
• Iraq arrests 'gang' behind hospital blaze