Toronto, 11 November 2026 – Four children have been killed by landmines in Syria in less than a week, Save the Children said, with an unexploded ordnance exploding and killing three children in rural Palmyra this week following a fatality in Hasakah last week [1].
This is double the weekly average of child fatalities as a result of landmines throughout July-September, Save the Children said [2].
Landmines and unexploded ordnances have become one of the gravest threats to children across Syria, with the UN saying in September that 269 children had been killed and 1,616 injured by landmines and unexploded ordnances since December 2024 when conflict that had been ongoing nearly 14 years ended and families started to return to their homes.
Data from the Landmine & Cluster Munition Monitor has found that Syria has recorded the second-highest number of child casualties from mines and explosive remnants of war globally, accounting for 9% of all reported child deaths and injuries in conflict zones.
The children killed on Monday this week, aged between 8 and 12, were herding sheep, according to local news reports. Just days ago, local media reported estimates from local government officials that Palmyra is contaminated with more than half a million mines following the country’s conflict [3].
According to the UN, more than two-thirds of recorded incidents have occurred on agricultural and grazing land, putting farmers and herders, including children tending livestock, at particular risk. UNICEF estimates that 5 million children live in areas contaminated with landmines and explosive remnants of war.
Last week, a landmine exploded at a school in Hasakah, killing one child and injuring 14 people including children and teachers, according to local media reports. Schools are protected under international humanitarian law, and should never come under attack. On 2 November, a child was killed and another injured, along with two adults killed and injured respectively, in a grazing area in Deir ez-Zor.
Child casualties in Syria verified by the UN rose from 475 cases in 2023 to 988 in 2025, with explosive ordnance responsible for two-thirds of these cases in 2025. This figure has increased from around a quarter of verified cases in 2024, as families who were displaced by the conflict return home to contaminated areas.
Yaser*, 15, lost a finger and got shrapnel in his eye due to an unexploded ordnance injury just weeks ago in Deir ez-Zor, one of the country’s most heavily contaminated areas [4].
He said: "I saw something that looked like a pen. I didn't know what it was. I lifted it and it exploded. I didn't feel pain at the beginning, but I then looked at my hand and saw my pinkie finger wasn't there. I then started screaming and running."
He added that his eye is painful and he has blurred vision, and is afraid of losing his sight. His family is waiting to hear about costs of surgery.
Like many children in Syria following 14 years of conflict, economic collapse and the widespread destruction of critical infrastructure, Yaser is no longer in school and instead works to support his family. He works in an aluminium workshop for the equivalent of US$15 per week.
He said that he is now concerned about his family’s survival, adding: "Now that I can't work for a long time, my brother alone cannot support the whole family and pay for my treatment and surgery."
Save the Children is supporting Yaser and his family in its child protection case management system, and with clothes, hygiene supplies and emergency cash assistance. Looking toward his long-term recovery, the case management team will refer Yaser to a Save the Children-run vocational training center to help him safely acquire skills for a sustainable future livelihood.
Mine action is a stated priority for the Syrian government. It has established a Syrian National Mine Action Centre, led by the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management, which is critical to enabling safe returns and post-conflict reconstruction [5].
But the funding and resources devoted to mine action remain far below what is needed to deal with the scale of contamination, deliver the clearance effort necessary [6], support survivors and educate people about the risks. [7]
Jeremy Stoner, Acting Country Director for Save the Children in Syria, said:
“Children in Syria are playing a deadly game of stepping stones where one misstep will end their life.
"In Syria, when a child leaves their home, their parents often fear for their life. Schools, which are protected under international law, are no longer safe, as we saw in Hasakah last week. Meanwhile children who have been forced out of school and into work just to support their families do so at their own peril. Others who seek a brief respite through play pick up what they think is a toy or something to kick around, only to have their life shattered.”
“Any child killed is one too many. But the fact that hundreds have lost their lives to landmines in less than two years should be shaking up the world to intervene and support clearance and recovery. We need to see a huge shift – it is the only way to support children and families to be safe and to recover from a conflict that has already taken so much from them.”
Save the Children is calling on national authorities to redouble efforts to clear existing mines and unexploded ordnance and for international donors to support the scale-up and provision of technical equipment to mark out and clear unexploded ordnance.
We are also calling for increased funding for victims of assistance and to scale up paediatric blast injury training, resource prosthetics, pain management and physiotherapy, mental health support, and inclusive education to meet children’s lifelong recovery needs.
Save the Children has been working in Syria since 2012, reaching over five million beneficiaries, including more than three million children across the country. Through our education response, we worked with 11 local partners to reach over 125,000 children and help to rehabilitate 70 schools across the country.
ENDS
[1] Landmine blast kills three children near Syria’s Palmyra
[2] Calculations from estimating weekly averages from UNICEF’s data of 22 child fatalities during three months UNICEF Syrian Arab Republic Humanitarian Situation Report No.3, 30 September 2026 - Syrian Arab Republic | ReliefWeb
[3] Palmyra Region: More Than Half a Million Mines Scattered Across Syrian Desert | Welat TV
[4] Syria: Explosive ordnance continues to injure and kill people in Deir ez-Zor | MSF
[5] Syrian National Mine Action Centre, established under the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management; announced at the Geneva mine action conference, 22 June 2026; Mine Action Review, Syria
[6] United Nations Syria, No More Mines in Syria: Safe Ground, Real Futures, 4 April 2026
[7] Syrian Arab Republic Humanitarian Response Priorities 2026, Financial Tracking Service
