With the start of planting season for rain-fed agricultural lands in Manbij city, the catastrophe of war remnants, such as mines, booby-traps, and unexploded munitions, threatens the lives of hundreds of farmers who are beginning to plow their lands to plant seeds before the arrival of winter. According Syria with No Mines Campaign [1] (SWNM), the organization has received many reports stating that mines and unexploded munitions have been spread across these agriculture lands after the self-named Islamic State (Daesh/ISIS ) pulled out. These mines constitute a serious danger not only to the lives of farmers, but also to the process of plowing the lands and planting the seeds. In this way, the mines also negatively affect the harvest itself.
The danger of being in the villages is not only the hidden mines left behind by Daesh/ISIS, according to the SWNM reporter, but the hundreds of mortar shells, hand-made shells, and other local bombs, spread across the agricultural lands and amid olive fields. He stated: “The spreading of mines, booby-traps, and unexploded munitions in agricultural lands is not considered of minor importance compared with the mines hidden in civilian houses in Manbij and its suburbs, as we are not talking about houses that ISIS group had booby-trapped like in the Hay Alserb neighborhood. In this case, we are talking about an area of nearly 2000-3000 hectars of agricultural lands that contain thousands of these hidden munitions and mines.”
One of the suburban villages that registered a high number of mines and munitions is the village of Awn Al Dadat, which is located in the northern countryside of Manbij. This village saw a mass confrontation between Daesh group and Syrians Democratic Forces (SDF), who captured the village in mid-August 2016. One of the villagers said to the SWNM reporter that the south gateway to the village of Awn Al Dadat, facing towards the city of Manbij, has been mined almost completely, including houses, agricultural lands, and olive fields owned by village farmers. He added, “There are more than fifty houses that are still not safe because they have hidden mines and unexploded rockets within them.” Moreover, according to the Syrian Institution for Justice, a local Syrian organisation that works on observing and documenting violations in northern Syria, more than 8 civilians were killed in the recent times because of explosion of mines and munitions in agricultural lands in the village.
According to the Syrian Institution for Justice, since the campaign for Manbij began on the 28th May 2016, more than 200 civilians have been killed by mines. Of those killed, 70 were children under the age of eighteen, with four these children being from the same family who died on 23rd October, 2016 in Hay AlSerb at Al Masab Round. (These four children from the Abo Ismael family. They had been displaced from Al Shuyukh area in the city of Jarables.) In addition, 55 women were also killed. 200 others were wounded, with a significant number of them being transported to Kobani (Ein Al Arab) hospitals, where many of them lost their limbs.
(The Syrian with No Mines Campaign also reported on another witness who said that the Kurdala (Majra Tahtani) village contains dozens of unexploded munitions, rockets, and bombs. It is also one of the villages that witnessed exchanged bombardment between Daesh/ISIS and SDF.)
The Syria with No Mines Campaign calls for all the civilians and farmers to be very cautious during movement on or plowing in plowing agricultural lands. Do not to go close to any anomalies. Do not even try to blow up any found explosives.
[1] Syria with NO mines campaign is a Syrian campaign launched by many human rights activists and Syria's human rights NGOs, including the Syrian Institute for Justice and Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ).