Hundreds of thousands of explosive ordnances contaminate many parts of Syria, particularly the northwest of the country where conflict continues. Gary Toombs, Humanity & Inclusion’s global land release technical operations manager, explains how the February earthquakes “significantly aggravated an already desperate situation.”

After 12 years of conflict, Syria is heavily contaminated with landmines, bomb remnants, and improvised explosives that litter every part of the country, particularly the northwest. Musab, a risk education specialist for Humanity & Inclusion explains the effect this contamination could have on survivors of the Feb. 6 earthquake.

Humanity & Inclusion provides risk education and conflict preparedness and protection sessions to communities at risk of explosive ordnance in Ukraine.

Mykola Havrylets is Humanity & Inclusion's Explosive Ordnance Risk Education Supervisor. In this Q&A, he explains the types of explosive contamination teams are seeing after one year of war in Ukraine and what HI's teams are doing to protect communities.

Several times a week, Humanity & Inclusion provides Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) sessions and Conflict Preparedness and Protection (CPP) sessions to children, adults and nonprofit staff in Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia, Poltava and Dnipro, Ukraine. EORE Agent Victoria explains HI’s approach to protecting children from dangerous remnants of war.

Mykhailo Tsarik is an Explosive Ordnance Risk Education Agent working for Humanity & Inclusion in Ukraine. He explains the importance of his work to help people spot, avoid and report dangerous weapons.

Marta Janet Quintero Diaz has been part of Humanity & Inclusion’s demining operations in Colombia for seven years. With determination born from her own personal experience, Marta is working to make her country a safer place.

My name is Marta Janet Quintero Diaz and I have just turned 40. I’m from a village in the department of Antioquia, Colombia. I’ve been working for HI for seven years. I started as a deminer and now I’m the field supervisor for two demining zones.

My life changed forever the day I stepped on a mine.

I was 14 at the time. I remember it like it was yesterday. It’s something that marks you for life. It was raining that day. I was with a group of friends and we were playing chase on a path linking the road to my parents' property. Whenever we went there, the adults told us not to leave the path under any circumstances. In the village where I grew up, everyone knows people who have been victims of mines.

Suddenly, one of my friends shouted at me not to move. I looked behind me and that's when I saw it. I had stepped off the path as I was running and put my foot on a mine. That day, because it was wet, it didn’t explode.

We stood motionless for at least fifteen minutes, not knowing what to do. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I really saw my life flash before my eyes. I knew very well what could have happened to me. We went home and never went back on that path again. Even today, when I tell this story, I’m still affected by it and I get shivers down my spine.

Many years later, I was part of a team demining that same path. I remembered exactly where I had stepped on that mine when I was 14. And there, between the roots of a big tree, we found seven of them.

The first humanitarian demining operations in Colombia started in my village in 2012. One day, out of curiosity, I went along to an information meeting. We were shown pictures of devices identical to the one I had stepped on when I was 14. That's when I realized what I wanted to do with my life. I was lucky. The mine I stepped on didn’t explode. For many people, that’s not the case. I want to make sure it doesn’t keep happening.

When I started, I was eager to learn everything. I passed all the demining training levels one after the other. If I was going to do this job, I wanted to be the best. I said from the start that if I didn’t make team leader within a year, I’d stop. I started as a deminer, then after three months, I became a leader and six months later, I was a team leader. I’ve also got the two certificates you need to destroy explosive devices and ammunition myself. 

I wake up every day with the same motivation. Of course, the salary is important because we all have a family and responsibilities to take care of. But believe me, if I were rich, I’d do this work as a volunteer.

My motivation is my family. I’m here for them. I’ve got three sisters and two brothers, and since my father passed away, I’ve become the pillar of the family. I’m single and live with my mother, one of my sisters and her two children. After a work cycle, when we have two weeks off, I don't go to the beach or on holiday. I go straight home to see my family.

I dream of a Colombia at peace for my nieces and nephews. They are between 3 and 16 and I don't want them to go through the same thing as me.

The armed conflict in this country was terrible. I lost my father when I was 23 years old. But today, we have to move forward. Many of my colleagues have children, and they all dream of a better future for them. If they are to have the chance to experience a new country, we must all forgive and give the future a chance.

I could have chosen a job where I’d see my family every day, but that wouldn't have suited me. Demining is a hard job—you spend the day on your knees. You work in the mountains for six weeks at a time, away from your home and family. You make great sacrifices. But the reward is worth it.

When you finish clearing an area, release it back to the people and walk on their land with them, free of fear, you should see their eyes shine and their huge smiles. That is the best reward.

The day that Colombia is mine-free is the day that I stop doing this job.

Humanity & Inclusion's demining operations in Colombia are carried out with the support of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.

When Abdel was 16 years old, he lost his leg in a landmine explosion. Humanity & Inclusion has helped him rebuild his life through rehabilitation care and a new artificial limb.

Abdel and his friend were working on a farm when his friend stepped on a landmine. Unaware of the risks posed by mines—including that they are often laid in groups—Abdel ran to his friend's aid. He stepped on another mine and severely injured his leg in the explosion.

Abdel was taken to the hospital in Sana’a, where his right leg was amputated.

Humanity & Inclusion’s rehabilitation team in Yemen initially provided Abdel with a pair of crutches to help him get around. He then had sessions to prepare him for an artificial limb. Once it had been fitted, he participated in rehabilitation sessions to learn to walk with his new leg.

Abdel does not live near the rehabilitation center, so Humanity & Inclusion provided transport and accommodation to facilitate his treatment and recovery. Abdel has also received financial assistance to help him meet his needs.

With Humanity & Inclusion's support, Abdel is back on his feet again. He has regained his independence and self-confidence.

“My prosthesis has changed my life,” Abdel says. “I can walk and tend to my land and my crops. People who don't know I had an accident don't even notice that I am wearing a prosthesis.”

Humanity & Inclusion has conducted weapons clearance operations in northern Syria since 2018. A team of 25 demining experts face a giant task as the scale of explosive remnants of war contamination in Raqqa is beyond anything witnessed anywhere since WWII.

People living in Raqqa are under a daily threat of explosive remnants. The two managers of Humanity & Inclusion’s demining operations in Syria, provide insight into their efforts:

Raqqa was a stronghold of the Islamic State Movement until 2017 when the city was freed by Western forces under Operation Inherent Resolve. People fled the intense 5-month fighting and quickly started to return to the city after. The scale of the devastation still hit us. It’s as if the city was hit by five earthquakes in a row.

Five years later, the contamination left by ground fighting, massive U.S.-led coalition air strikes and booby traps is still there. Many unexploded devices, both manufactured and homemade, remain in the rubble of collapsed and damaged buildings. In the meantime, people have returned because they want to work their land, clear the roads, and reopen the markets, hospitals and schools. The contamination continues to endanger Syrians and compromise the humanitarian response.

The most contaminated city in the world

Raqqa is one of the most polluted city we have ever seen. The contamination is very diverse and complex, affecting all human activities on a daily basis: Buildings like clinics, banks, and civil services offices have been booby-trapped in order to terrorize people and to prevent any return to normal. Unexploded rockets or bombs are in buildings’ rubble after intense aerial bombings. Around the city, agricultural fields were turned into defensive minefields by the Islamic State Movement to impeach the progress of any armed groups. The level of contamination is incredible. It is everywhere—in every building, on any square meter of land, you need to be careful.

The contamination is so complicated that it will take decades to clean Raqqa. Raqqa is, for us, like a laboratory where you can find all the range of contamination in urban and rural areas coming from a modern conflict, marked by intense use of explosive weapons.

Islamic State Movement fighters deployed improvised explosive devices throughout the city to ensure maximum terror and destruction: you can find stories of mines wired to light switches, stashed in mattresses, and hidden in hollowed-out Qurans, which hamper the resumption of ordinary and everyday activity.

We find all range of explosive munitions primarily dropped from above by International Coalition Forces as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. We also have to deal with traditional manufactured landmines.

With over 2,500 recorded explosive weapons use incidents between 2013 and 2019 and an anticipated airstrike and artillery failure rate of between 10-30 percent, it is assumed that some 250-750 unexploded weapons must therefore be found in the city.

Key infrastructures like dams or waterways are also contaminated with explosive remnants and release chemical and toxic contamination. Tap water is no longer fit for consumption in some areas and we have seen reported cases of cholera recently.

The people are really counting on us to release them from this threat. Progress is slow, and many civilians unwilling to wait for assistance took it upon themselves to remove explosive remnants from their homes at great personal risk.

Demining since 2018

Our teams are highly skilled and able to face all these different situations. Local authorities task us to intervene in many areas. But we are also called directly by people through a hotline to pick up explosive remnants they found on their property. We receive so many calls every day that we have to prioritize which ordnance we will secure first.

In 2022, Humanity & Inclusion teams have secured 1,000 live items and more than 2,600 inert items—which look like explosive ordnances but do not contain explosive content. So far, teams have cleared a total of 220,000 square meters.

We have just opened clearance operations in Der-er-Zor, another major city that is a 2-hour drive from Raqqa. Next year, we also want to launch a depollution team staffed by women.

It is a race against time to clear lands with a view to restoring the city and its surrounding fields to its inhabitants. The removal of the rubble, which is the prerequisite for carrying out any reconstruction work, cannot be done without clearance operations first. The contamination impeaches the rebuilding of the city.

We want to contribute to rebuild the city and we regret that clearance operations are a bit forgotten by donors today. That is really a concern for us.

After her worst fears came true, Irina was forced to leave her life in Ukraine behind. Today, she finds comfort in Humanity & Inclusion’s psychosocial support in Moldova.