after severe bad weather in Belgium, shells from the First World War return to the surface

During the First World War, a billion shells were fired and 60 million during the Battle of Verdun alone. However, between 10 and 20% of them did not work. If at that moment, their dysfunction has spared lives, they can wake up at any time, while they blend into the landscapes, deformed, rusty, covered with mud or moss. Kinds of “military chameleons” that the Robin des Bois association strives to identify.

The NGO says that the shell still kills today as in 2016 when a collector died after the explosion of one of his devices in the Aisne. Between 2012 and 2018, shells and other old weapons of war caused 4 deaths, 34 injuries and required the evacuation of more than 57,000 people in France.

Polluting weapons

Military explosives are real time bombs for the environment, filled with arsenic, mercury, lead, but also ammonium perchlorate. All these heavy metals and chemicals are released into soils, groundwater and tap water. However, when it comes to conflicts, the responsibility of the polluters is never engaged and then the bombs never stop raining on the world, it is unlikely that we will soon force the belligerent countries to repair their damage by financing the decontamination of the conflicts they have generated.

Wars therefore continue to leave their mark on the earth and the hearts of men, even a century after their end.