Clearing the way for the Baiji–Baghdad express

Baiji's railway station, in Salah al-Din province, is a derelict mess of shattered glass and twisted metal. Once a bustling rail hub, carrying passengers to Baghdad, it was seized by ISIS in 2014 and encircled by dense swathes of buried IEDs.

Overturned rail carriages and scarred buildings bear testament to more than two years of intense fighting between ISIS, the Iraqi security forces and coalition forces. Defensive forts against vehicle-borne IED attacks lie all around.

It's an eerie scene, and it's hard to imagine the bustling Baiji–Baghdad rail line shuddering back to life. But ISIS has gone and HALO is about to clear the last IED from the railway yard. And that brings hope.

IEDs every few metres

Rehabilitating the railway is expected to contribute to wider and social economic recovery in Baiji, which has faced significant economic challenges.

The 2014 to 2017 conflict with ISIS caused immeasurable damage and forced four million people to flee their homes across Iraq. In Baiji, people were displaced for years as their homes and villages were heavily contaminated with explosives. Normal life in the town just stopped.

"They [ISIS] placed IEDs every three to five metres from each other," says HALO Trust team leader Omar Hussam, whose team had spent 10 months clearing a bridge north of the station and along the railway line connecting to the Baiji oil refinery. "There are still many areas with the same density across Baiji," he said.

HALO started work in Iraq in 2018, identifying a safe route for children to take to school.

Training and employing 150 local men and women, HALO has now destroyed more than 15,787 explosives and taught 86,364 people how to stay safe in areas littered with explosives.

Affordable travel for local communities

HALO's recent clearance on the Baiji yard has focused on a 13,606 sq metre area on the southern side. Thanks to Dutch funding, HALO's mechanical clearance team have identified and destroyed three jerrycan IEDs and several explosive remnants buried alongside a working farm.

With the last technical survey for the entire station complete, there is just one building on the eastern side of the station to clear.

Once up and running, the railway line will link the Baiji refinery with Mosul and Kirkuk in the north and Baghdad in the south. Facilitating the vital movement of goods, particularly oil, the line will also provide affordable transport for local communities.