A dozen children and a family returning home for the first time in years were among 80 civilians killed in Syria by landmines or explosives since the fall of Bashar Al Assad on December 8, a charity has said.
The Halo Trust has warned that civilians in the war-torn country are facing an unprecedented threat from millions of mines and other discarded munitions as they return to towns and villages they fled during the civil war.
There is as yet no comprehensive information about the location of minefields left behind by all the warring parties. Particularly at risk are children playing in areas where mines or the presence of other explosives have not been identified.
The UK-based Halo Trust, the world’s largest landmine clearance charity, has now revealed that two children were killed by mines while picking olives in the north-western province of Idlib. A family of three returning to check the state of their home they had left as result of the fighting were also killed by a landmine, said the charity.
Mouiad Alnofaly, Halo’s operations manager in Syria, told The National despite the end of the civil war, there was still danger from “millions of mines and unexploded munitions”, leaving a “deadly legacy which will kill and maim for generations to come”.
“As people return to their homes to be reunited with their loved ones, they are not aware where the dangerous areas are and the number of people who are returning or planning to return is in the hundreds of thousands,” he said. “Millions have been made homeless. I myself was exiled and did not see my family for many years."
Mr Alnofaly said he "can’t describe the terrible feeling” when he sees his fellow Syrians being killed at a time of relative hope for the country.
He said 100 minefields had already been discovered on the front line of previous fighting and “there were already terrible incidents on a daily basis due to unexploded ordnance in which whole families were killed because their child mistook a grenade for a valuable scrap metal”.
“Children are not aware of the hazards and the areas that are contaminated, so they try to play in their gardens but unfortunately most of the areas with mines are unknown to them,” he said. “So we’ve started risk education with schools but we don’t have the capacity to cover the whole country.”
People trying to sell what they think is scrap metal but which turns out to be munitions has been another cause of deaths.
The UN says about a third of the population of Syria are affected by some form of explosives contamination, with the highest percentages in the governorates of Quneitra, Suweida, Rural Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, Deraa and Damascus.
A total of 3,353 civilians, including 889 children, are known to have been killed by anti-personnel landmines in Syria since 2011, the Syrian Network for Human Rights revealed last year.
The Halo Trust has set up an emergency hotline that allows people to report finding discarded landmines and other suspicious explosive objects that might kill or maim them. The charity is appealing for donations to help it train thousands of Syrians in demining.
Mr Alnofaly said Halo estimates that a demining and explosive ordnance disposal operation of $40 million a year would save thousands of lives and help restore the shattered Syrian economy. “Safe demining costs money,” he said. "It’s not a huge price to pay for such a prize."
The UK-based Halo Trust was founded in 1988 and employs 13,000 deminers in more than 30 countries, including Ukraine, Afghanistan, Angola and Yemen.
The charity’s highest-profile supporter was Princess Diana, who captured global attention when she walked through a live minefield in Angola in January 1997. Prince Harry retraced her steps during a visit to Africa in 2019.
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Stormy seas
Weather warnings show that Storm Eunice is soon to make landfall. The videographer and I are scrambling to return to the other side of the Channel before it does. As we race to the port of Calais, I see miles of wire fencing topped with barbed wire all around it, a silent ‘Keep Out’ sign for those who, unlike us, aren’t lucky enough to have the right to move freely and safely across borders.
We set sail on a giant ferry whose length dwarfs the dinghies migrants use by nearly a 100 times. Despite the windy rain lashing at the portholes, we arrive safely in Dover; grateful but acutely aware of the miserable conditions the people we’ve left behind are in and of the privilege of choice.
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John Heminway, Knopff
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THREE
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MATCH INFO
Everton 0
Manchester City 2 (Laporte 45 2', Jesus 90 7')
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Bundesliga fixtures
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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if you go
The flights
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Rooms at the M Social Singapore cost from SG $179 (Dh488) per night including taxes.
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Mica
Director: Ismael Ferroukhi
Stars: Zakaria Inan, Sabrina Ouazani
3 stars
The five pillars of Islam
