There is an urgent need for de-mining in Deir ez-Zor governorate, to avoid more preventable deaths, injuries and psychological trauma resulting from explosive hazards.
Professionals within the sector have strongly alerted about the high levels of contaminations across the Euphrates River banks, underlining that such issues pose a significant risk for the safety and security of people living in or returning to the area.
Hundreds of these have found themselves wounded even inside their houses. Amina, for example, had been displaced for several months, went back to her place of origin and only two days later she stepped on a device that was semi-buried under the floor of her living room.
She got her two legs surgically removed as a result, admitted in the hospital, although she says she can still feel them at times.
Dozens of neighbours have faced similar misfortunes in her town, Abu Hamam, and across the whole region in the last months, as retreating armed groups left behind countless explosives before the frontline moved further south-east.
The widely damaged health system aggravates the situation, as people often have to travel hours to reach a free-of-charge operational medical structure and in those cases time is of the essence for the survival or prognosis of the person.