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'Faceless killer': Syria landmines keep sowing death
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A sign warning against landmines is seen by a barbed-wire fence in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on April 22, 2021 near the border fence with the Syrian governorate of Quneitra.
(AFP/Jalaa Marey )
F
amily members from three generations were huddled on the back of a pickup truck for what started as a joyful ride through the Syrian countryside for Abdulaziz al-Oqab and his relatives.
They were planning to sample the long-forgotten peacetime pleasure of a simple family picnic when a landmine brought a bloody end to their outing, and to the lives of 21 family members.
Oqab walked away with relatively light wounds that day in February 2019, but the blast killed his wife, two of his sons, four of his siblings, an uncle and other family members, and left others maimed.
"It was a day of joy that turned into tragedy," Oqab, 41, told AFP. "I've come to hate going out since then. People live in fear of this faceless killer that could be anywhere."
The airstrikes and shelling responsible for many of the Syrian war's half million deaths have decreased in recent years.
But remnants of explosives laid by all sides in the 11-year-old conflict are now claiming more lives in Syria than anywhere else in the world, says the United Nations.
Since 2015, landmines and other explosive remnants have on average killed or injured five people every day, according to UN data.
