Landmine casualties hit 4-year high as funding declines: Report

GENEVA

Landmine casualties reached their highest level in four years in 2024, as dwindling donor support and emerging treaty withdrawals undermined global mine action efforts, the Landmine Monitor 2025 report said on Monday.

The report documented 6,279 people killed or injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war in 2024, "the highest annual total since 2020, driven largely by conflicts in countries outside the treaty ban, including Myanmar," where "massive use continues," and Syria, where civilians face rising risks as they return to contaminated areas.

Civilians accounted for 90% of global casualties, nearly half of them children, the report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) stressed. Myanmar recorded the "highest casualty toll" for the second year in a row.

"This year's findings make clear both the scale of new challenges and the need to stay united in upholding commitments and maintaining vital compliance efforts,” said Mark Hiznay, the Landmine Monitor editor for ban policy.

The 163-page report highlighted both progress and setbacks. More than half of the affected states parties reduced mine contamination in 2024, and 31 states parties have completed clearance since the Mine Ban Treaty entered into force in 1999, with Oman joining the list in 2025. Two new accessions, the Marshall Islands and Tonga, increased the number of parties to the treaty to 166, covering 85% of the world.

But the path to a mine-free world is slipping further out of reach, according to the report. The total area cleared decreased in 2024 due to reduced funding and increased insecurity, while donor contributions for victim assistance, just 5% of mine action funding, dropped by nearly a quarter. A US freeze on foreign assistance early in 2025 further deepened the crisis, it noted.

"Behind each statistic is a family and a community still living with the consequences of landmines," said funding editor Ruth Bottomley. "The decline in funding for victim assistance is alarming and must be urgently reversed."

The report also detailed continued or possible new mine use by Russia, Myanmar, Ukraine, and others, as well as withdrawals or attempted withdrawals from the Mine Ban Treaty -- developments marking "dangerous erosion of the global norm," according to the ICBL.

"The Mine Ban Treaty remains a powerful instrument, and its obligations and principles must be actively defended," ICBL Director Tamar Gabelnick said. "Turning back is not an option; we have come too far, and the human cost is simply too high."