Syrians returning home face the deadly threat of mines

Ayghad never thought that her dream of returning to her farm could turn into a nightmare.

He fights back tears as he shows us a picture of his late father, smiling and surrounded by olive trees in Idlib province, northwest Syria.

The photo was taken five years ago, a few months before forces linked to the former government took over their town, near the city of Saraqeb.

The city was a strategic stronghold for Syrian opposition factions for years before forces allied with the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad launched an offensive against rebels in Idlib province in late 2019.

Hundreds of thousands of residents fled their homes as Assad forces seized several other rebel strongholds in the northwest in early 2020.

Ayghad and her father were among the displaced.

“We had to leave because of the fighting and the airstrikes,” says Ayghad, while tears fill his eyes. “My father refused to leave. He wanted to die on his land.”

Ever since then, father and son had wanted to return. And when opposition forces regained control of their town in November 2024, their dream was about to come true. But soon disaster struck.

“We went to our land to collect some olives,” explained Ayghad. “We went in two cars. My father took a different route to get back to our house in Idlib city. I warned him about it, but he insisted. His car hit a land mine and exploded.”

Ayghad’s father died instantly on the spot. Not only did he lose his father that day, he also lost his family’s main source of income. The cultivated land spread over 100,000 square meters was full of 50-year-old olive trees. It has now been declared a hazardous mining area.

At least 144 people, including 27 children, have been killed since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in early December, according to the Halo Trust, an international organization specializing in the clearance of landmines and other explosive remnants of war.

The Syrian Civil Defense – known as the White Helmets – told the BBC that many of the dead were farmers and landowners trying to return to their lands after the fall of the Assad regime.

Unexploded remnants of war pose a serious threat to life in Syria. They are mainly divided into two categories. The first are unexploded ordnance (UXO), such as bombs, mortars and grenades.

Hassan Talfah, head of the White Helmets team clearing UXO in northwestern Syria, explained that these devices are difficult to clear because they are usually visible from the ground.

The White Helmets say they cleared about 822 UXO in northwest Syria between November 27 and January 3.

The biggest challenge, Mr. Talfah says, is in the second category of munitions: mines. As he explained, the former government forces planted hundreds of thousands of them in various areas of Syria – mainly in agricultural lands.

Most of the deaths recorded since the fall of the Assad regime took place on former battle lines, according to the White Helmets. Most of the dead were men.

Mr. Talfah took us to two huge fields full of pain. Our car followed him down a long, narrow, winding dirt road. It is the only safe way to reach the fields.

Along the sides of the road, children run around. Hassan told us that they belong to recently returned families. But the dangers of mines surround him.

When he gets out of the car, he points to a fence in the distance.

“This was the last point that separated the areas under the control of the government forces from those held by the opposition groups” in Idlib province, he told us.

He added that Assad’s forces had placed thousands of mines in the fields beyond the fence to prevent the rebel forces from advancing.

The fields around us were once prime agricultural land. Today, they are all barren, showing no greenery except for the green peaks of the land mines that we can see through binoculars.

Without the skills to clear mines, all the White Helmets can do for now is cut fields and throw up signs to warn people along their borders.

They also paint warning messages on dirt fences and houses at the edges of fields. “Danger – pain ahead,” they read.

They lead campaigns to raise public awareness of the dangers of entering contaminated land.

On the way back, we meet a 30-year-old farmer who recently returned. He tells us that part of the land belongs to his family.

“We couldn’t recognize anything,” says Mohammed. “We used to plant wheat, barley, cumin and cotton. Now we can’t do anything. And as long as we can’t cultivate these lands, we will always be in a bad economic situation,” he added, clearly frustrated.

The White Helmets say they have identified and cut around 117 minefields in just over a month.

They are not the only ones working to clean up mines and UXO, but there seems to be little coordination between the efforts of various organizations.

There are no accurate statistics of areas contaminated with UXO or mines. But international organizations, such as the Halo Trust, have produced rough maps.

Halo Syria program director Damian O’Brien says a comprehensive survey is needed to understand the country’s level of pollution. It estimates that around one million devices would have to be destroyed to protect civilian life in Syria.

“Any Syrian army position is likely to put some mines around it as a defensive technique,” says O’Brien.

“In places like Homs and Hama, there are entire neighborhoods that have been almost completely destroyed. Anyone who goes into these structures to assess, demolish or rebuild, must know that there may be unexploded ordnance, whether it’s bullets, ammunition, grenades, shells.”

The White Helmets found a treasure that could aid their mine clearance efforts. In their office in the city of Idlib, Mr. Talfah shows us piles of maps and documents, left behind by government forces.

They show the locations, numbers and types of mines planted in different areas of northwestern Syria.

“We will deliver these documents to the bodies that will deal directly with the land mines,” says Mr. Talfah.

But the local expertise currently available in Syria does not appear to be sufficient to address the serious risks posed to civilian life by unexploded ordnance.

Mr. O’Brien emphasizes that the international community must work together with the new Syrian government to improve the experience in the country.

“What we need from donors is funding so that we can expand our capacity, which means employing more people, buying more machines and operating in a wider area,” he says.

For Mr. Talfah, cleaning up UXOs and raising awareness of their dangers has become a personal mission. Ten years ago, he lost his leg while cleaning up a bomb.

According to him, his injuries and all the horrific incidents he has seen of children and civilians caused by UXO have only fueled his persistence to continue working.

“I never want a civilian or team member to go through what I have,” he says.

“I can’t describe the feeling I get when I clear a danger that threatens civilian life.”

But until international and local efforts to neutralize the risk of landmines are coordinated, the lives of many civilians, especially children, remain at risk.