More than 200 individuals, including women and children, have lost their lives in Syria due to incidents involving war remnants in the three months following the fall of the Assad regime, with bomb disposal experts warning that “no area in Syria is safe”. As approximately 1.2 million people return to their former homes and lands after being displaced by the country’s brutal civil war, the number of casualties has increased. Thousands of landmines and unexploded shells and munitions are scattered across major cities and rural areas, with accidental contact killing hundreds, especially children, who sometimes mistake them for toys.

Mohammed Sami Al Mohammed, mine action programme coordinator for the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, emphasized that it would take decades to remove the mines and make Syria safe. Volunteers have been working to clear people’s land to make it safe for them to return, but some have also lost their lives in the process.

Fahd al-Ghajar, a 35-year-old volunteer landmines clearer, had been regularly posting pictures on Facebook showcasing his dangerous work clearing mines in various locations across Syria. In one of his posts, he expressed pride in removing mines from farmland used for grazing livestock. On 21 February, Ghajar was killed by a landmine explosion while demining a farm in northern Syria. His brother, Abduljabbar Alghajar, stated that Ghajar had successfully cleared the house, but a mine detonated while he was inspecting the field, killing him instantly. Many individuals, like Ghajar, have made significant sacrifices for the people of Syria to return to their homes safely.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/mar/17/syria-landmines-kill-hundreds-fall-of-assad