Geneva - More than 20,000 Georgian residents displaced by their country's war with Russia in August have returned home, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Friday.

UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said the return was focused on buffer zones around the breakaway region of South Ossetia. He said the returns started when Russian forces began their withdrawal from the region on October 8.

The UNHCR warned that the area is strewn with mines. Redmond says the UNHCR believes that, of 133,000 people registered as displaced by the war by Georgian authorities, 78,000 have already returned to their homes. (dpa)