The 2025 Landmine Monitor report recorded a significant increase in the number of landmine and explosive remnants of war victims in Syria during 2024, bringing the issue back to the forefront as one of the most serious challenges facing residents across wide areas of the country.

According to the report, cited today, Monday, 1 December, by Reuters, Syria was among the main hotspots in the global rise in mine-related casualties, as returning residents face increasing danger from explosive remnants in areas that saw previous battles.

The report recorded more than 6,000 incidents over the past year, including 1,945 deaths and 4,325 injuries, the highest annual total since 2020.

Around 90% of the victims were civilians, nearly half of them women and children.

The report noted that the increase was concentrated mainly in conflict areas in Syria and Myanmar, as people returning to their areas in Syria face escalating risks from explosive remnants following the fall of the previous regime.

The 2025 Landmine Monitor report explained that these risks worsened in 2024 amid the continued absence of effective clearance programs and declining international support.

The Monitor warned that landmines and explosive remnants of war have become a daily threat to civilian life, especially in areas that have seen changes in control in recent years, making survey and clearance operations more difficult.

This rise comes at a time when global mine clearance programs are suffering from funding cuts, which have reduced humanitarian initiatives dedicated to removing explosives and providing support to victims, factors that directly affect the situation in Syria.

2,370 clearance operations

On 17 November, the Civil Defense announced it had carried out 2,370 operations to remove remnants of war in Syria from the beginning of 2025 until 15 October.

Technical survey teams identified 900 sites contaminated with remnants of war and delivered more than 10,000 awareness sessions to residents, reaching around 23,000 people, including 20,000 children.

In a statement, the Civil Defense warned of the dangers of approaching suspicious objects or unexploded ordnance, stressing the need to avoid areas that have recently witnessed clashes or contain military sites and minefields.

It emphasized the importance of immediately notifying teams working in the war-remnants response sector, and not attempting to approach or move any suspicious object, noting that the Syrian Civil Defense teams, under the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management, are working to remove this deadly threat through survey and clearance operations.

The Civil Defense said it “seeks to protect civilians and ensure their safety in their homes, farms, and routes back to their villages, driven by its belief in the right of Syrians to a safe life and a future free of risks.”

It explained that remnants of war pose a major danger that will haunt Syrians and their future for many years, turning their daily lives into a deferred death, noting that hundreds of thousands of landmines, cluster munitions, and unexploded ordnance are scattered in cities, towns, and farmlands, a deadly legacy left by years of “intense shelling and brutal attacks by the Assad regime and its allies.”