LONDON: The sudden fall of Bashar Assad鈥檚 regime in early December prompted around 200,000 Syrians to return to their war-ravaged homeland, despite the widespread devastation. But the land they have come to reclaim harbors a deadly threat.

Almost 14 years of civil war contaminated swathes of the Syrian Arab Republic with roughly 324,600 unexploded rockets and bombs and thousands of landmines, according to a 2023 estimate by the US-based Carter Center.

In the last four years alone, the Syrian Arab Republic has recorded more casualties resulting from unexploded ordnance than any other country, yet no nationwide survey of minefields or former battlefields has been conducted, according to The HALO Trust.

Those explosives have maimed or killed at least 350 civilians across the Syrian Arab Republic since the Assad regime fell on Dec. 8, Paul McCann, a spokesperson for the Scotland-based landmine awareness and clearance charity, told Arab News.

The actual toll, however, is likely much higher. 鈥淲e think that鈥檚 an undercount because large areas of the country have no access or monitoring, particularly in the east,鈥� he added.

Children bear the brunt of these hidden killers.

Ted Chaiban, deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations at the UN children鈥檚 agency, UNICEF, warned that explosive debris is the leading cause of child casualties in Syria, killing or injuring at least 116 in December alone.

According to McCann, the bulk of the documented incidents involving landmines and unexploded ordnance took place in Idlib province, north of Aleppo, and Deir Ezzor, where intense battles between regime forces and opposition groups had occurred.

鈥淭here is a long frontline 鈥� maybe several hundred kilometers 鈥� running through parts of Latakia, Idlib, and up to north of Aleppo, where the government was on one side, and they built large earthen barriers,鈥� he said.

鈥淭hey used bulldozers to push up big walls and dig trenches, and in front of their military positions they put a lot of minefields.鈥�

McCann said the exact number of landmines, across the Syrian Arab Republic and in the northwest specifically, remains unknown. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know exactly how many, because there hasn鈥檛 been a national survey,鈥� he said.

After the regime鈥檚 forces withdrew from these areas, locals discovered maps detailing the location of dozens of minefields. Although it will take time and resources to clear these explosives, such maps make containment far easier.

鈥淭here was a battalion command post, and when the troops left, local residents went in and found some maps of local minefields,鈥� McCann said. 鈥淪o, for that one area, we鈥檝e discovered there were 40 minefields, but this could be repeated up and down this line for all the different military positions.鈥�

Landmines planted systemically by warring parties are not the only threat. HALO reported 鈥渉uge amounts of explosive contamination anywhere that there might have been a battle or been any kind of fighting.鈥�

One such area is Saraqib, east of Idlib. The northwestern city endured a major battle in 2013, fell to rebel forces, was recaptured by the Syrian Army in 2020, and was then seized during the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham-led offensive on Nov. 30.

鈥淭he city was fought over by the government and multiple different opposition groups, who sometimes fought each other,鈥� McCann said. 鈥淎nd in a big spread south of there, there are dozens of villages that we鈥檝e been through which are contaminated with explosives.鈥�

The Carter Center warned in a report published in February 2024 that the 鈥渟cale of the problem is so large that there is no way any single actor can address it.鈥�

Since Assad鈥檚 ouster, HALO has seen a 10-fold surge in calls to its emergency hotline in areas near the Turkish border where it operates.

鈥淓very time our teams dispose of a piece of ordnance鈥� people hear the explosion and they come running to say, 鈥業 found something in my house鈥� or 鈥業 found something on my land, can you come and have a look? Can you come and take care of that?鈥� McCann said.

鈥淲e are hoping to be able to increase the size of the program as quickly as possible to deal with the demand.鈥�

As the only mine clearance operator in northwest Syria, HALO is struggling to keep up with surging demand. With funding for only 40 deminers, the organization is desperately understaffed, HALO鈥檚 Syrian Arab Republic program manager Damian O鈥橞rien said in a statement. 

HALO urgently needs emergency funding 鈥渢o help bring the Syrian people home to safety,鈥� he said. 鈥淐learing the debris of war is fundamental to getting the country back on its feet,鈥� he added.

The urgency of clearing unexploded ordnance in Syria has grown as displaced communities, often unaware of those hidden dangers, rush to return home and rebuild their lives.

鈥淥ne of the problems we鈥檙e finding is the people are coming back now,鈥� McCann said. 鈥淭hey want to plant the land for spring. They want to start getting the land ready because they鈥檙e going to need the income to rebuild.

鈥淢illions of homes have been either destroyed by fighting, or they鈥檝e been destroyed by the regime that stripped out the windows and the doors and the roofs and the copper pipes and the wiring to sell for scrap.鈥�

The war in the Syrian Arab Republic created one of the largest displacement crises in the world, with more than 13 million forcibly displaced, according to UN figures. With Assad鈥檚 fall, hundreds of thousands returned from internal displacement and neighboring countries.

And as host countries, including Turkiye, Lebanon and Jordan, push to repatriate Syrian refugees, UNICEF鈥檚 Chaiban warned in January that 鈥渟afe return cannot be achieved without intensified humanitarian demining efforts.鈥�

HALO鈥檚 O鈥橞rien warned in December that 鈥渞eturning Syrians simply don鈥檛 know where the landmines are lying in wait. They are scattered across fields, villages and towns, so people are horribly vulnerable.鈥�

He added: 鈥淚鈥檝e 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.鈥�

Unless addressed, these hidden killers will impact multiple generations of Syrians, causing the loss of countless lives and limbs long after the conflict has ended, the Carter Center warned.

Economic development will also be disrupted, particularly in urban reconstruction and agriculture. Environmental degradation is another concern. As munitions break down, they leach chemicals into the soil and groundwater.

But safely demining an area is costly and securing adequate funding has been a challenge. Mouiad Alnofaly, HALO鈥檚 senior operations officer in the Syrian Arab Republic, said disposal operations could cost $40 million per year.

Faced with these limitations, locals eager to cultivate their farmland are turning to unofficial solutions, hiring amateurs who are not trained to international standards, resulting in more casualties, McCann warned.

鈥淧eople are returning and trying to plant, and so we鈥檙e hearing reports that they鈥檙e hiring ex-military personnel with metal detectors to do some sort of clearance of their land, but it鈥檚 not systematic or professional,鈥� he said.

鈥淚 met a man a few days ago who said his neighbor had hired an ex-soldier with a metal detector to find the mines on his land. The man (ex-soldier) was killed straight away, and the neighbor was injured.鈥�

McCann emphasized that a field cannot be considered safe until every piece of explosive debris and every landmine has been removed.

鈥淚f there are 50 mines in a field, and somebody finds 49 of them, the field still cannot be used,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou can only hand back land when you are 100 percent confident that every single mine is gone.

鈥淪o, even in places where some people are removing mines, we don鈥檛 know if all of them have been cleared, and we鈥檒l have to do clearance again in the future.鈥�

Although the northwest of the Syrian Arab Republic is riddled with unexploded ordnance, locals remain resolute in their determination to stay and rebuild their lives 鈥� a decision that is likely to lead to an increase in accidents.

鈥淲e think the number of accidents will increase because a lot of people don鈥檛 want to leave their displaced communities in Idlib in the winter,鈥� McCann said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e waiting for the weather to improve.鈥�

In the village of Lof near Saraqib, one resident HALO encountered returned to work on his land just hours after the charity鈥檚 team had neutralized an unexploded 220mm Uragan rocket. Had it detonated, it would have devastated the village.

鈥淲e took the rocket, dug a big hole, and evacuated the whole village,鈥� McCann said. 鈥淲e used an armored front loader to take it to this demolition site in the countryside.

鈥淏y the time we came back to the village, the landowner had started to rebuild his house where the rocket had been. He couldn鈥檛 touch it (before), and the rocket had been there probably since 2021.

鈥淏ut within three or four hours of us removing the rocket, he had started to rebuild.鈥�

Among the most common unexploded ordnance found in the northwest Syrian Arab Republic are TM-62 Russian anti-tank mines and ShOAB-0.5 cluster bombs.

Despite HALO鈥檚 35 years of work in safely clearing explosive remnants of war, the scale of the problem, compounded by a lack of adequate resources, remains a significant challenge.

鈥淭o cover the whole country, there will have to be thousands of Syrians trained and employed by HALO over many years,鈥� said program manager O鈥橞rien.

And until international and local efforts are effectively coordinated to neutralize this deadly threat, the lives of countless civilians, particularly children, will continue to be at risk.