War Remnants Endanger the Lives of Syrians in Idlib
(AWP) - Shaker Zaytoun was not expecting his life to turn upside down when he went out one day for his usual routine of picking up figs from his field in the south of the Idlib governorate in northwest Syria.
A landmine, a leftover from the Syrian war, suddenly exploded, causing him serious injuries that resulted in the loss of his leg.
He tells the stories of many young men and farmers who similarly lost their limbs, or even their lives, saying, "More than one young person lost their lives, and more than one farmer was killed on their land. First, they go missing before they are found dead in their fields. There are more people who lost limbs due to mines and remnants of war found in the region."
According to Maamoun al-Omar, Director of the Civil Defence War Remnants Centre in Syria, 16 people (14 children and two men) were killed in mines or shell explosions since the beginning of the year until November 12, in addition to the injury of 22 civilians, including 15 children and three women.
He adds that Civil Defence squads have destroyed 957 various ammunitions, conducted 1264 non-technical survey operations in 469 areas contaminated with munitions and carried out 3912 awareness sessions on war remnants for 79,945 beneficiaries in 2023.
Al-Omar said, "We advise our civilians to stay away from foreign objects and suspicious areas and to inform the Syrian Civil Defence if they see any foreign object."
The United Nations Mine Action Service have documented the death or injury of 15,000 people as a result of landmines or war remnant explosions in Syria since 2015.