A voluntary campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of mines and war remnants was launched in several areas of Syria. It included most parts of the governorates of Deir al-Zour, Raqqa and al-Hasakah.
The campaign launched by the “Euphrates Post” team inside Syria and will continue over the next few days, will publish detailed reports on each stage, and steps that will seek to implement, guide and educate civilians on ways and means of self-protection to avoid the dangers of landmines and other remnants of war, which have claimed the lives of hundreds of people.
The means used in the campaign include the distribution and dissemination of posters, brochures and guidelines on how to act in dangerous areas and how to identify areas suspected of containing mines, other missile remnants, dangerous containers and objects.
It is worth noting that the areas under ISIS control in the governorates of Deir al-Zour and al-Raqqa, as well as parts of the Hasaka countryside, are absent from the international demining organizations, although these areas are most affected by mines throughout Syrian territory, For several reasons, including the indiscriminate planting of mines by ISIS, especially in populated areas, in order to prevent them from escaping from their areas of control, in addition to the lack of specialized teams for the dismantling of mines, as well as the complete absence of relevant civil society institutions.
It is noteworthy that there is no accurate statistics of the civilian casualties and injuries caused by mines and other remnants of war from cluster bombs and ammunition in the eastern region of Syria to date, despite the high preparation of civilian casualties.
Landmines are also one of the reasons why a large number of displaced people are forced to decide not to return, especially after dozens of cases of landmines have been recorded by civilians as they search their homes, streets, lanes and even roads.
Earlier, Euphrates Post reported that the SDF militia had taken the mines abandoned by ISIS in the areas expelled from it, as a way to blackmail civilians returning to their cities, towns and villages, and who face the problem of remnants of the organization, including mines during their search of their homes, Streets and lanes, and even on travel routes.
After taking control of al-Raqqa and large parts of the village of Deir al-Zour, it did not take responsibility for removing all the mines planted by ISIS to take this risk as a means to force civilians to pay the money. This is a precedent for the first time in the history of war.
The lack of material capacity of a large number of civilians, and the failure of the SDF to remove any mine for those who do not, resulted in the death and injury of a number of civilians who had no money due to war and displacement.
Some civilians, because of their inability to pay SDF clearance fees and the recent slowdown in the removal of what is in their villages and towns, have led to the bombing of these mines by means of primitive, As happened in the Shuaitat district of rural Deir Al-Zor eastern several times, noting the failure of attempts by some civilians to detonate or remove, which led to the death and injury of many of them.