Fourteen years of conflict in Syria, which ended with the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024, have left a devastating long-term risk of explosive ordnance contamination.

According to Syria in Figures, in the first nine months of 2025 the country witnessed about 650 unexploded ordnance (UXO) incidents, causing more than 570 deaths and 850 injuries. The true toll is likely higher, given poor local reporting and the rural nature of the problem. The Syrian Network for Human Rights reports 3, 471 people were killed by UXO between 2011 and 2024—an annual average of 267—meaning 2025 deaths were on track to nearly triple that rate. Furthermore, Handicap International's Landmine Monitor recorded 5, 757 UXO casualties globally in 2023; at current levels, Syria's incidents could make up more than a third of that global total.

The most affected are young people who, attracted by the objects or scavenging scrap metal to sell, end up in accidents costing them parts of their bodies, if not their lives.

This photographic project explores the issue of unexploded ordnance among the communities of returnees in some of the most contaminated areas, such as Deir ez-Zur and Raqqa on the Euphrates corridor, and rural Hama.