Most of the deaths recorded since the fall of the Assad regime have occurred on the former front lines, according to the White Helmets. Most of those killed were men.
Mr. Talfo led us to two huge fields strewn with landmines. Our car followed him on a long, narrow and winding dirt road. This is the only safe way to the fields.
On the sides of the road, children run on the playground. Hassan tells us that they are from families that have recently returned. But they are surrounded by the danger of mines.
As we get out of the car, he points to a barrier in the distance.
“It was the last point separating areas under the control of government forces from those held by opposition groups” in Idlib province, he tells us.
He adds that Assad’s forces have planted thousands of landmines in fields behind the barrier to halt the advance of rebel forces.
The fields around where we stand were once vital farmland. Today they are all barren, with no green to be seen except for the green tops of the mines that we can see through binoculars.
With no experience in demining, all the White Helmets can do for now is to cordon off these fields and put up signs along their borders warning people.
They also spray warning labels on earth barriers and houses at the edges of fields. “Danger is ahead of the mine,” it says.
They run campaigns to raise local residents’ awareness of the dangers of entering contaminated land.
On the way back, we meet a farmer in his 30s who recently returned. He tells us that part of the land belongs to his family.
“We didn’t recognize any of it,” says Mohammed. “We used to sow wheat, barley, cumin and cotton. There is nothing we can do now. And until we can cultivate these lands, we will always be in a bad economic state,” he adds, clearly disappointed.
