The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

War ordnance casualties in August 2022 | 45 civilians, including 35 children, killed and injured across Syria

SOHR renews its appeal to all relevant international bodies to urgently address the problem and remove old, unexploded ordnance from Syria

War ordnance, such as old landmines and unexploded IEDs, bombs, shells, projectiles, grenades, etc. which are everywhere in Syria, continues to pose a threat to the safety and lives of innocent Syrians. These explosive remnants of war (ERW), which had been planted by military formations across the entire Syrian geography for over 11 years, have tragically killed and injured a large number of Syrian people.

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has monitored and tracked the issue of explosive remnants of war and documented all the casualties in explosions of old landmines and unexploded ordnance across Syria in August 2022; they are as follows:

 

Deaths: 18 civilians, including 13 children.

Wounded people: 27 civilians, including three women and 22 children.

 

Accordingly, SOHR has documented the death of 165 civilians, including ten women and 81 children, due to explosions of old landmines, unexploded shells and bombs across Syria since early 2022. In addition, 249 civilians, including 15 women and 140 children, sustained various injuries in the same period. Among the total death toll, a man and his son were killed in the collapse of a war-damaged building in Darya city in Rif Dimashq, as well as the death of four civilians in the collapse of another building in Jubar neighbourhood.

 

Here is a monthly breakdown of casualties of explosions of old ordnance across Syria in 2022:

– July

Deaths: 20 civilians, including 14 women and eight children.

Wounded people: 30 civilians, including a woman and 20 children.

 

-June

Deaths: 16 civilians, including four women and eight children.

Wounded people: 65 civilians, including two women and 22 children.

 

-May

Deaths: 19 civilians, including two women and eight children.

Injured people: 22 civilians, including two women and 15 children, some of whom sustained severe injuries.

 

-April

Dead people: 19 civilians, including two women and 12 children.

Injured people: 22 civilians, including four women and 13 children, some of whom sustained severe injuries.

 

-March

Deaths: 29 civilians, including 12 children.

Wounded people: 29 civilians, including three women and nine children, some of whom sustained severe injuries.

 

-February

33 fatalities, including two women and 16 children.

37 wounded people, including 31 children.

 

-January

11 fatalities, including two children.

17 wounded people, including nine children and two females.

SOHR renews its call on all international organisations to work on removing unexploded war ordnance across Syrian immediately and to address the problem appropriately, especially since all warring parties throughout Syria continue to plant IEDs and landmines. SOHR also calls upon international organisations to adopt a strategy to raise the residents’ awareness about the threats of old ordnance which may have been planted in abandoned buildings as well.

 

It is worth noting that in 2021 SOHR was able to document the following casualties of the old ordinance:

 

241 fatalities, including 114 children and 19 females.

 

128 wounded people, including 60 children and 27 females, some of whom sustained serious injuries.

Among 2021’s total death toll, there were 49 persons, including 13 women and seven children, who were killed during their search and collection of the truffle which grows in areas that are subjected to heavy rain, and it is sold at very high prices.

 

The largest number of people killed during truffle collection was documented on March 7, 2021, when two landmines exploded in Wadi Al-Azeeb area, east of Hama, killing 18 people, among them there were ten women, and injuring six others.

 

SOHR would like to point out that the largest number of ERW casualties was documented in the first week of 2021 when more than 100 civilians, including 20 females and 34 children, were killed, while 35 persons sustained various injuries.