As the debate over reconstruction efforts continues and the international community looks at how to help the country, “it is imperative that immediate investments are made to ensure that the ground is safe and free of explosives,” spokesman Ricardo Pires told a news conference at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

While hopes for a peace dividend are growing, children “continue to suffer the brutal impact of unexploded ordnance at an alarming rate,” he said.

In December of last year alone, Pires argued, UNICEF received reports of 116 children killed or injured by unexploded ordnance; although available data underestimate the reality, “given the fluidity of the humanitarian situation on the ground.”

Over the past nine years, at least 422,000 incidents were recorded in 14 Syrian provinces, half of which resulted in tragic child casualties. ef/arm/mem/mjm