Syria's unexploded ordnance claims a casualty every six hours, charity warns
A mine-clearance charity says an unexploded device kills or injures someone in Syria roughly every six hours, with children heavily affected.
In the Damascus countryside, Malakeh Barbour described how her children collected scrap for heating, inadvertently triggering an unexploded device that killed her 17-year-old son Ahmed and injured her other sons, Haidar and Ghaith. Since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, UNMAS and NGOs say unexploded ordnance has caused at least 2,375 deaths or injuries, including more than 850 children, though the true toll is likely higher.
The HALO Trust's Syria programme manager, Simon Jackson, noted an average of one casualty every six hours, with almost 700 incidents this year and a third resulting in death, one-third of victims being children. Over 60% of accidents happen on agricultural or grazing lands, obstructing farmers from planting and rebuilding homes. Clearance teams, hampered by rubble, limited resources and lack of maps, have cleared only about 200,000 square metres in eight months in the Jobar area. The defence ministry’s engineering units are gradually de-mining populated zones, but officials admit the overall contaminated area remains unknown and full clearance could take decades.
Why it matters
Unexploded bombs continue to kill and maim Syrians, especially children, hindering recovery and food production.
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