Since early 2022 | Explosions of old ordnance kill and injure 20 civilians, mostly children

Since early January, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the death of five civilians, including a child, due to the explosion of old landmines and unexploded shells and bombs. In addition, 14 people, including nine children, were injured.

Further details of circumstances of the deaths are categorized as follows:

 

• On January 3, a young man was killed due to the explosion of landmine of ERW in the vicinity of Sheikh Hilal area in Al-Salamiyah countryside, northeast of Hama.

• On January 7, two civilians were killed as an unexploded “bomb” exploded in a shop selling scrap in Taybat Al-Imam city in northern Hama.

• On January 12, a 20-year-old man due to the explosion of an old landmine while he was shepherding near Aabel village in the southwestern countryside of Homs, which is under control of the Lebanese Hezbollah militias and members of the regime’s 4th Division.

• On January 15, a child was killed in an explosion of a remnant of war mine in Tab Harabash in Deir Ezzor city.

 

SOHR calls on all the relevant international organisations to work on the immediate neutralising and removal of unexploded war ordnance in Syrian. Explosive remnants of war (ERW) are a serious problem that need to be addressed urgently. SOHR would like to see, as a first step, the immediate involvement of international organisation in raising the awareness of local Syrians of the dangers of ERW.

Syrian Observatory activists have documented the death of 664 people, including 95 women and 240 children, by mines and IED explosions and the collapse of cracked residential buildings in several areas of the Syrian territory across Syria since early January 2019.

Among the total death toll, there are 112 persons, including 47 women and 19 children, who were killed during their search and collection of the truffle which grows in the areas that is subjected to heavy rain, and it is sold at very high prices.