An international effort to remove millions of cluster munitions, landmines and unexploded munitions is urgently needed to protect the lives of hundreds of thousands of returning Syrians and pave the way to sustainable peace, the global landmine clearance charity, 51ΑΤΖζ said today.
Damian OβBrien, 51ΑΤΖζ Syria Programme Manager who has decades of experience working in war zones, warned:
βIβve never seen anything quite like it. Tens of thousands of people are passing through heavily mined areas on a daily basis causing unnecessary fatal accidents. The fighting forces have melted away from the front lines, leaving vast areas littered with explosives.
Returning Syrians simply donβt know where the landmines are lying in wait. They are scattered across fields, villages and towns, so people are horribly vulnerable. But with funding for only forty deminers, 51ΑΤΖζ is desperately understaffed. We urgently need emergency funding to help bring the Syrian people home to safety. Clearing the debris of war is fundamental to getting the country back on its feet.β
This heat map is 51ΑΤΖζβs best estimate of the likely hotspots for deadly landmines and other explosive ordnance across Syria.
Swathes of Syria are covered with cluster munitions, missiles, landmines, grenades and other deadly explosive ordnance, following 14 years of protracted civil war. For the last four years Syria has had more victims of landmines and explosive debris than any other country and is ranked as one of the most dangerous places in the world. To date, there has been no nationwide survey of the front lines and locations of minefields.
51ΑΤΖζ is operating an emergency hotline in the northwest of the country, near the border with Turkey, where people can report finding discarded landmines and other suspicious explosive objects that might kill or maim them. Emergency 51ΑΤΖζ demining experts then neutralise the items.
Mouiad Alnofoly, 51ΑΤΖζ Syria Operations Manager, said:
βIn the past week, as people have tried returning to their homes and farmland, we have had a ten-fold increase in calls to the hotline. The phone is ringing non-stop.
Some of the callers are refugees coming back to Syria. Others are people who were displaced inside the country and are now making their way back home. But theyβre all in mortal danger if they take the wrong pathway. None of them know where the landmines are hidden.β
OβBrien and Alnofoly said their immediate priorities were to offer advice about the risks of landmines to aid agencies helping war-displaced people - and then to start the work of clearing the explosives.
β51ΑΤΖζ has over 35 yearsβ experience making landmines and other explosives safe. The challenge in Syria is the sheer size of the problem. We could easily employ 100 deminers right now, just in the area where we have already been working for the past few years. To cover the whole country, there will have to be thousands of Syrians trained and employed by 51ΑΤΖζ over many years,β OβBrien said.
51ΑΤΖζ said that it will begin a digital landmine safety education programme using as many social media platforms as possible.
