More than 2,700 people were killed or injured by landmines and unexploded munitions in Syria last year — making it the world’s worst-affected country in terms of casualties caused by the weapons, a study found on Wednesday.
The Landmine Monitor 2021 report said Syria had registered 2,729 casualties in 2020, overtaking Afghanistan, which topped the list of affected countries from 2008 to 2019.
Researchers did not identify any new use of anti-personnel mines by the Syrian government or Russian forces, but rebel soldiers “likely continued to use improvised landmines, as in previous years”, they said.
The 140-page study was released days after a landmine explosion killed seven people, including a child, in a car on Saturday in Homs province, central Syria, where death tolls mount even though the war’s front lines barely change.
Globally, researchers counted at least 7,073 casualties from mines and explosive remnants of war, including 2,492 deaths across 54 territories last year — not as high as the peak of 9,440 in 2016, but up from the 2019 tally of 5,853.
Marion Loddo, who edited the report, said the increase was due to worsening conflicts and the use of “improvised” landmines in such places as Afghanistan, Colombia, India, Myanmar, Nigeria and Pakistan.
She lamented the “disappointingly slow clearance” rate of landmines and unexploded weapons, despite some 164 nations signing on to the Mine Ban Treaty of 1997.
“If we are to reach a mine-free world, states must redouble their efforts towards speedy implementation of their obligations and a much more efficient distribution of resources,” said Ms Loddo.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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The Bio
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Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
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Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
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Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China |
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UAE |
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Japan |
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Norway |
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Canada |
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Singapore |
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Saudi Arabia |
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century
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Tomorrow 2021
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
