News Center — Landmines, unexploded ordnance, and war remnants continue to threaten the lives of civilians in various Syrian areas. These risks are distributed across agricultural lands, villages, homes, and schools, making residents permanently exposed to danger.

War remnants threaten the lives of civilians daily in many Syrian areas despite the halt of military operations. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented since the beginning of November the deaths of 10 civilians, including 8 children and two men, and the injury of 39 others, including 23 children, two women, and 14 men, due to the explosion of landmines, munitions, projectiles, and bombs from war remnants.

The Observatory revealed that with this toll, the number of victims, killed and injured, reached 49 people, including 31 children, which reflects the scale of the danger that war remnants represent for children in particular, given their spread in inhabited areas, agricultural lands, and places residents use in their daily lives.

Regarding the distribution of incidents, the Observatory indicated that they included the governorates of Deir ez-Zor, Idlib, Homs, Hama, Hasakah, and Daraa, and were recorded in different circumstances, including the explosion of landmines while grazing sheep and working in agricultural lands, the explosion of munitions and bombs inside homes and schools, in addition to incidents related to the use of wood containing war projectiles for heating purposes.

The Observatory explained that among the most prominent incidents was the death of three children due to the explosion of a landmine while they were grazing sheep west of Palmyra in the Homs countryside, the death of two children and the injury of two other children from the same family due to a landmine explosion in the Maizilah area in the Al-Bukamal countryside east of Deir ez-Zor, and a girl died and her grandmother was injured due to the explosion of a cluster bomb from war remnants inside a house in the town of Kafr Sajna in the southern Idlib countryside.

A continuing danger that obstructs the return of civilians to a safe life

These facts confirm that the danger of landmines and unexploded ordnance is no longer confined to previous clash sites, but extends to homes, schools, fields, and grazing areas, exposing civilians to a continuous danger and obstructing their return to a safe life.

The Syrian Observatory called on the United Nations and organizations specialized in clearing landmines and war remnants to intensify operations to survey contaminated areas and clear them of landmines and unexploded ordnance, giving priority to residential areas, schools, agricultural lands, and livestock grazing areas, stressing the need to strengthen awareness programs about the dangers of landmines and war remnants, and to work to protect civilians.