Landmine injuries, deaths increase around the world

VIENNA: The annual death toll from landmine rose 25% to 2089 people last year, owing to the conflicts in Afghanistan, Libya, Ukraine and Yemen, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines said yesterday.

More than 6 500 people were injured by these weapons around the world, the campaigners said in their annual landmine report.

The combined deaths and injuries reached the highest level since the group began recording casualties in 1999. Although such mines are weapons of war, nearly eight out of 10 victims are civilians, the report showed.

Syria and Myanmar were the only two countries where government forces planted new mines in 2016.

The UN rights office has cited Myanmar’s use of mines at its border as a sign that the government has been trying to drive the Rohingya minority out of the country, and to prevent it from returning. In addition to government forces, non-state combatants used anti-personnel mines in Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen in 2016.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, also noted positive developments.

Following the peace agreement between the Colombian government and rebels, the planting of landmines stopped. Mine clearance efforts increased in several countries.

Algeria and Mozambique declared themselves free of landmines this year.

Twenty years ago, countries created the international Mine Ban Treaty, which 162 governments have signed.

Countries that have not joined include Syria, Myanmar, the US, Russia and China. –