As a Syrian living in Homs, we are joyful but we also fear what the future may hold

Liberation is not easy — decades of injustice and oppression can’t be deconstructed overnight

Residents of Homs celebrate the fall of the capital Damascus to opposition forces on Sunday, December 8. Picture: AP /Ghaith Alsayed

My friend called me crying. Homs was liberated, she said. My nerves were about to explode. Liberated, not liberated, liberated, not liberated — the only certainty was that Syrian insurgents had entered the city and taken some of its surrounding countryside.

I have lived in Homs all my life, writing under a pseudonym so the world would know about the people of the city and their sorrow. I wanted to be our voice. After the siege of Homs from 2011 to 2014, the past decade has brought ever-present violence and frequent blockades of food, fuel and medicine.