Syria’s civil war is far from over

In recent years, the green plains of Idlib province have seen some of the heaviest fighting in Syria’s protracted civil war. Since the Assad regime collapsed in December, the fighting here has stopped – but the dangers of war are far from over. People in Syria are still dying.

A 100-mm Soviet-made artillery shell lies on the ground at the side of a field being ploughed. If detonated, its shrapnel can travel up to half a kilometre. Workers from the British charity Halo Trust approach the shell carefully through a cleared ‘safe corridor’. They place large sandbags around it and plant a small TNT charge. Once at a safe distance and hidden behind a half-destroyed building, one of them presses a small detonation button. A deep thump follows.

‘Since August 2022, we have cleared over 1,500 mines and other explosives,’ says Hussein Kazhali, the operational country manager of Halo Trust for Syria, as they carefully clear up.