Calls for Int’l Bodies to Remove Unexploded War Ordnance in Syria

 A displaced Syrian child standing beside the remnants of war (SOHR)
A displaced Syrian child standing beside the remnants of war (SOHR)
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Calls for Int’l Bodies to Remove Unexploded War Ordnance in Syria

 A displaced Syrian child standing beside the remnants of war (SOHR)
A displaced Syrian child standing beside the remnants of war (SOHR)

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) renewed its appeal to all relevant international bodies to urgently remove old and unexploded wat ordnance in Syria.

War ordnance, such as old landmines and unexploded IEDs, bombs, shells, projectiles, grenades, and other munitions continue to pose a threat to the safety and lives of innocent Syrians, the war monitor stressed, noting that they are widely spread in the country.

These explosive remnants of war (ERW), which had been planted by military formations across the entire Syrian geography for over 11 years, have tragically killed and injured a large number of the Syrian people, it warned in a report published on Tuesday.

The SOHR has monitored and tracked the issue of explosive remnants of war and documented all the casualties in explosions of old landmines and unexploded ordnance across Syria in July 2022.

It documented the death of 20 civilians, including 14 women and eight children, and the injury of 30 civilians, including a woman and 20 children.

It further issued a monthly breakdown of casualties of explosions of old ordnance across Syria this year, noting that 16 civilians died in June, including four women and eight children, while 65 people were injured, including two women and 22 children.

In May, the war monitor said 19 people died, including two women and eight children, and 22 were injured, including two women and 15 children, some of whom sustained severe injuries.

In April, 19 civilians died, including two women and 12 children, while 22 people were injured, including four women and 13 children, some of whom sustained severe injuries.

March witnessed the death of 29 civilians, including 12 children, and the injury of 29, including three women and nine children, some of whom sustained severe injuries.

According to the report, 33 died in February, including two women and 16 children, and 37 were wounded, including 31 children.

It documented the death of 11 people in January, including two children, and the injury of 17 people, including nine children and two females.

Accordingly, SOHR documented the death of 127 civilians, including 10 women and 54 children, due to explosions of old landmines, unexploded shells and bombs across Syria since early 2022.

In addition, 192 civilians, including 11 women and 98 children, sustained various injuries in the same period.

Among the total death toll, a man and his son were killed in the collapse of a war-damaged building in Darya city in Rif Dimashq, as well as the death of four civilians in the collapse of another building in Jubar neighborhood.



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.