Myanmar leads world in deadly landmine toll as conflict gets worse
Latest report shows Myanmar topped global landmine casualties last year with over 1000 victims. Both military forces and opposition groups keep using these weapons as civil war continues
Myanmar has become the worlds most dangerous place for landmine incidents‚ with over 1‚000 people hurt or killed last year (which is more than war-torn Syriaʼs 933 victims)
The south-east Asian nation saw a big-time rise in mine use since mid-2023; both the ruling military and anti-government groups are laying these death-traps everywhere. Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan‚ who studies Myanmar for Landmine Monitor says “the real number is surely higher because theres no good way to track all cases“
Global statistics paint a scary picture - mines and leftover war explosives hurt or killed 5‚757 people worldwide last year:
- 84% were regular people not soldiers
- 1‚498 were kids
- Over 500 victims in both Ukraine and Afghanistan
- 499 people got hurt in Yemen even after fighting stopped
The military (which took power about 3 years ago) does some really bad stuff - they make locals walk first in mine-areas as human-shields. In mid-2024 this led to one death and two injuries in central Myanmar; similar thing happened in fall-2023 when 8 people were used as shields and one got hurt
This is a grave violation of international humanitarian and human rights law
Clean-up work goes on but its super-slow: teams cleared 160‚500 mines from about 282 square kilometers of land worldwide last year. Anne Héry from Humanity & Inclusion points out that “areas stay dangerous for many years after wars end“
