Syria ordnance causes casualty every six hours, HALO says

Syria is recording an average of one casualty from unexploded ordnance every six hours, the mine-clearance charity HALO Trust said, as war remnants continue to kill and injure civilians and soldiers across the country.

International organisations and NGOs led by the United Nations Mine Action Service say incidents involving unexploded ordnance have killed or injured at least 2,375 people, including more than 850 children, since the December 2024 overthrow of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. The real toll is thought to be much higher.

Simon Jackson, HALO Trust's Syria programme manager, told AFP that almost 700 casualties from explosive accidents have been recorded in Syria this year, with one-third of them deadly and one-third of all casualties involving children. More than 60 percent of incidents have happened on agricultural land or grazing areas, he said.

Jackson said accidents spiked in early 2025 as people returned to their communities after Assad fell. He said unexploded ordnance blocks families from rebuilding homes and businesses and prevents farmers from sowing crops.

HALO teams and other specialists have been working with Syria's new authorities to clear mines. Jackson warned that even if the sector doubled its current pace, clearance would still take at least 10 years, and said the total effort was likely to take 20 to 30 years.

A source in the defence ministry's engineering units told AFP that the ministry was gradually clearing land under a plan prioritising populated areas, roads and farmland. The source said 47 soldiers had been killed and more than 90 injured by mines and other unexploded ordnance since the new authorities took power.

The source said anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines were the most common ordnance encountered, and that clearance was hampered by missing maps, wide contamination and limited resources.