Fighting is over, people are coming back. Their home is now a minefield

Mahmoud picked up what he thought was a toy. It was an explosive device

Mahmoud Ali Al Khalaf is six years old. He is from Al Meriaaya, a village located east of Deir ez-Zor. His family returned to their home in July 2025 following the end of the fighting.
Just one month later, on 13 August, while his father was out shopping, Mahmoud was playing right next to his house. He picked up a small metal ball that he thought was a toy. It was a cluster grenade which exploded in his hand, destroying his right hand and severely injuring his right leg.

The trauma 

Doctors were able to save his leg. Four metal pins were attached to the bone inside his leg and an external metal structure was used to stabilise it. Mahmoud has to travel 450km to Damascus for treatment and will require further surgery. He has already undergone three surgeries, and his family has to pay the costly travel expenses each time. The first operation alone cost 4200 euro.

Psychological trauma is evident for both Mahmoud and his father, Abu Mohammed Al Khalaf. Mahmoud is withdrawn, shy and irritable. He is absorbed by playing games on a mobile phone for the whole day, trying to distract himself. His father's speech is interrupted by long silent pauses, and staring into space.

Abu Mohammed Al Khalaf used to work in an oil company, but since the revolution he has not been able to find any work.

"I don't have any land or sheep. But I have ten children. It's a big family to look after."

How to rebuild family’s life

The family now lives in the shell of a concrete house, where the dusty wind whips at the plastic tarpaulin covering the door and the aid blankets covering the gaps where the windows used to be. After breaking down in tears, Abu Mohammed said: 

“After the war, I returned to find that my house had been looted and destroyed."
The family were aware that their village would be littered with of remnants of war after the conflict, as the two neighbouring houses were occupied by soldiers. Abu Mohammed said:
“When I first arrived, nobody would dare come to this area because it was contaminated by war debris.”

But faced with the urgency of moving back in, Abu Mohammed cleared part of the area himself and detonated some of the UXO in a fireplace. He recalls over 20 instances of people setting off unexploded ordnance in his village, resulting in the deaths of five children:

"The area is very dangerous for children because they don't know what they're looking at. They can't recognise ordnance. They think it's a toy and play with it. That's the problem now. The area is still not safe for children. We never know where we might find war remnants. After what happened with Mahmoud, I'm keeping the kids inside the house."

Mahmoud's father is worried about the effect that spending a lot of time inside playing games on a mobile phone is having on him:

“It's important to clean the area because you can't keep the children indoors all the time. They want to go outside and play, and keeping them inside is not a long-term solution. It would be very good if the area around my house was cleared. Many people are too scared of these remnants to come back to their houses. I hope this will end one day. I fled the conflict to save my children. When I returned to safety, an accident happened to my child. I hope that we will all be able to return to a place of security and peace

Syria, explosive ordnance contamination is embedded in the spaces civilians rely on for daily life and survival.  Since 8 December 2024, 1,252 explosive ordnance-related incidents have been recorded across Syria, resulting in 2,263 casualties: 
 - 800 killed 
- 1,463 injured 
 Agricultural and grazing areas continue accounting for the majority of incidents recorded, further highlighting the extent to which explosive ordnance contamination remains intertwined with food security, livelihoods and population movements across the country.