People dine outdoors at a Syrian restaurant in the Sixth of October suburb of Cairo, Giza governorate, on December 8, 2024. — AFP

Reda Al Khedr was just five years old when his mother fled the siege of Homs in 2014. A decade later in Cairo, he finds it hard to believe that the Syrian government responsible for his father's death has collapsed. "I can barely recall Syria," Khedr, now 15, told AFP in the Egyptian capital. "But now we're heading back to a liberated Syria. We're done with Bashar Al Assad and his corrupt regime," he said on Sunday, still in shock over the rebel groups' swift offensive that ended the Assad family's five-decade rule earlier that day.

Khedr's father, who went missing in 2014, was confirmed dead last year, just months before rebel forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham broke open prison after prison, releasing thousands. "Maybe he would have been freed too," the teenager lamented, referring to himself as part of Syria's "new generation that will rebuild even better than before".

Since 2011, when Assad's crackdown on pro-democracy protests ignited the civil war, around 1.5 million Syrians have sought refuge in Egypt, according to United Nations estimates based on government data. Approximately 150,000 are registered refugees with the UN.

In western Cairo on Sunday, where Syrian businesses have thrived, the atmosphere was one of jubilation. "The team is so happy that half of them didn't show up to work," said the manager of a Syrian restaurant. "They spent all night celebrating. Now we're short-staffed," he told AFP while rushing to serve customers.

Mohamed Feras, a 32-year-old sales clerk in a nearby store, spent the entire night and into Sunday afternoon glued to the news. "I haven't seen my family in 13 years. Now I can finally go home," he said, briefly tearing his eyes away from the screen. Like many others, Feras fled across borders to escape Syria's mandatory military service at the age of 19. "Now my family's already asking me what I want my first meal in Damascus to be," he told AFP, his voice filled with excitement.

For the thousands of Syrian entrepreneurs who established businesses and settled in Egypt, returning "won't happen overnight," said 36-year-old chef Mohamed al-Shami. "But we will return," he added. Shami, a business student in Syria before taking a job in a Cairo restaurant, said his family home near Damascus "was shelled to the ground, but we'll rebuild it." Shami, like others interviewed by AFP, knows challenges lie ahead but remains hopeful for his fellow Syrians scattered across the globe. "I have never lost hope and I'm not scared now," he said, adding that he "knew this day was coming and I know what's coming can't be worse than what we've left behind."

For Shawkat Ahmed, a 35-year-old manager at a confectionery store, "there's no turning back now," despite "some fears of chaos taking hold". His first thought was, "what happened to Bashar, did they kill him or did he run away like a cockroach?"

Others felt a mix of joy and sorrow. Yassin Nour, 30, has spent nearly half his life under the shadow of "destruction, killing, displacement, and terror" following the Syrian uprising. "I can't help but think of my friend who called for freedom 15 years ago; I wish he could see this," the Aleppo native told AFP.

For Egyptians who have grown accustomed to living alongside Syrians, the celebration is bittersweet. "You can't just leave us now," one Egyptian patron told a Syrian seller in a confectionery. Handing out free samples, which he called "victory sweets," the seller promised, "you'll visit us in a free Syria."

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