One careful step at a time through Lebanon’s minefields

Abu Ghassan Awada has a crop of peppers that are plump and ready to harvest. Above them, peach trees reach up over our heads. He remembers the sound of explosions at night when goats, sheep and foxes strayed onto the mines. It meant that for years, he couldn’t farm his land. “I used to just be a worker, hired by other people. But now I can hire people to work on my own plot,” he says. He still takes time to maintain and fix the metal fence that marks out the edge of his farm. Beyond it, just metres away, the land is still an active minefield. He knows not to stray towards it.