BEIRUT:Landmines and unexploded ordnance in Syria have killed or injured at least 188 children since president Bashar Assad’s overthrow in December, the Save the Children charity said Thursday.
Of that figure, more than 60 children were killed, the UK-based group said, warning the toll could rise as more families return to the war-ravaged country.
Since Assad was toppled on December 8, “landmines and explosive remnants of war have caused at least 628 casualties, more than two-thirds of the total number of casualties for all of 2023,” Save the Children said.
The United Nations last week said about 1.2 million people had returned home to Syria in the past three months, including over 885,000 who were internally displaced.
“Much of Syria is pockmarked by mines and explosive remnants of war after 13 years of conflict,” said Bujar Hoxha, the charity’s Syria director.
“At least 188 children have been killed or injured in about three months — that’s an average of two children a day,” he added.
The group called on the transitional authorities and international donors to speed up the process of clearing mines and unexploded ordnance in Syria.
A report by non-governmental organization Humanity and Inclusion last month had warned of the dangers posed by unexploded munitions left over from the devastating civil war that erupted in 2011.
It said experts estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 of the roughly one million munitions used during the war had never detonated.
Also last month, at least eight civilians including three children were killed when unexploded munitions ignited at a house in northwestern Syria, a war monitor and the civil defense said.
