Syria’s lethal legacy of landmines and other explosives left over from years of conflict has led to the deaths of over 100 children in the last month alone, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday, calling on the international community to urgently support country-wide demining projects.
icardo Pires, UNICEF Communication Manager for Emergencies, told journalists from Damascus that in the last nine years, at least 422,000 incidents involving unexploded ordnance – or UXO – were reported in 14 governorates across Syria, “with half estimated to have ended in tragic child casualties”.Girls and boys in the country continue to suffer the brutal impact of unexploded ordnance (UXO) at an alarming rate,” he explained.
The UNICEF official underscored that in December last year, 116 children were killed or injured by UXO, an average of nearly four per day – a likely underestimate “given the fluidity of the situation,” he told journalists in Geneva.
“It’s the main cause of child casualties in Syria right now and has been for many years, and will continue to be,” with more than 300,000 mines still spread across the country, according to estimates.
