Global deaths and injuries from landmines and unexploded ordnance surged to their highest level in four years in 2024, driven by escalating conflicts and a wave of withdrawals from the international treaty banning anti-personnel mines, Reuters reported on Monday.
According to the Landmine Monitor 2025 report, more than 6,000 casualties were recorded last year — including 1,945 deaths and 4,325 injuries — marking the worst annual total since 2020. Nearly 90% of those harmed were civilians, almost half of them women and children.
The sharp rise was fueled largely by intensifying violence in Syria and Myanmar, both of which remain outside the Mine Ban Treaty. In Syria, civilians returning to former battle zones have faced mounting danger from unexploded ordnance since the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad, the report said. Myanmar recorded over 2,000 incidents, the highest of any country, as both government forces and armed groups escalated mine use.
The treaty — formally the 1999 Ottawa Convention — commits its 166 signatories, representing 85% of the world’s states, to prohibit the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines and to clear contaminated areas while assisting victims. But its foundation is now under strain.
In a troubling shift, several European countries — Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland — have initiated legal processes to withdraw from the convention, citing what they describe as increasing military threats from Russia. The report warned that their coordinated exit risks a “dangerous erosion” of the global ban.
Ukraine formally withdrew from the treaty on June 29, a move military analysts told Reuters could help slow Russian advances as Kyiv struggles to defend territory more than three years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion. The report also noted signs of new Ukrainian mine use and highlighted Thailand’s accusations that Cambodian forces deployed anti-personnel mines during a July border skirmish — allegations Cambodia denies.
Meanwhile, non-signatory states Russia and Myanmar continued to deploy landmines extensively, further worsening the humanitarian toll.
Compounding matters, donor funding cuts — including from the United States — have forced the termination of several mine-clearance and survivor-support programs, the report found. These reductions come as needs grow, leaving thousands of civilians without adequate assistance.
States party to the Mine Ban Treaty are meeting in Geneva this week to discuss the escalating crisis — and the mounting pressure threatening one of the world’s most widely supported disarmament agreements.
