UNMAS 2025 Landmine report letter on 48k or 3k deaths

 

UNMAS & Geneva/New York Contacts

  1. Agnes Marcaillou – Former Director, UNMAS Email: marcaillou@un.org

  2. François-Xavier De Cloedt – Programme Officer, UNMAS Geneva Email: decloedt@un.org

  3. Mohammed Qazilbash – Chief of Programme, UNMAS Email: qazilbash@un.org

  4. Camille Gosselin – Public Information Officer, UNMAS Email: gosselin@un.org


To: United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) 

 Subject: Clarification and Escalation on Explosive Weapon Casualty Reporting, Treaty Enforcement, and Regional Accountability

Dear Agnes and UNMAS team,

I write to express concern regarding the framing and statistical aggregation in the Secretary-General’s 2025 report on mine action, particularly the cited figure of 48,384 conflict-related deaths attributed to “explosive weapons.”

This figure, while alarming, appears to conflate landmines, UXO, cluster munitions, IEDs, artillery, and air-dropped ordnance — without disaggregating by weapon type, treaty coverage, or operational mandate. 

Such aggregation risks inflating the perceived scope of mine action, while obscuring the specific legal and humanitarian obligations tied to landmine clearance and victim assistance. 

Landmines as hidden/latent weapons are uniquely pernicious and persistent threats hence the Ottawa ban and UNMAS role.

I urge UNMAS to publish a clear breakdown of the 48,384 deaths by:

  • Landmines and UXO — which appear to account for approximately 3,000 deaths annually not the claimed 48k deaths

  • Improvised explosive devices (IEDs)

  • Artillery  

  • Air-dropped munitions

  • Small arms fire

  • Other indirect conflict-related causes

This distinction is not semantic — it is operational, legal, and reparative. Without it, mine action risks becoming a catch-all advocacy tool rather than a precision-driven humanitarian mandate.

To be blunt, UNMAS could be spending its funds on head/regional office brochures rather than digging up landmines and passing off artillery or air raids as minefields.

It is concerning the report has no mention of WW1 Flanders or WW2 Europe cleanup nor WW2 North Africa nor 20C Bosnia.

Nor mention of the latest UNMAS forecasts of likely cleanup dates and costs by region/nation.

Also there seems no mobilisation plan or details by military of existing demining troops that are only training or in barracks.

Furthermore, I call on UNMAS to escalate its stance on:

  • Cluster munitions: Full enforcement and universalisation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) is overdue, with public tracking of non-compliant states and clearance delays.

  • White phosphorus: Immediate classification and universalisation as a banned incendiary weapon, with parity to tear gas under Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). Its use in civilian zones is chemically and morally indistinguishable from other banned agents.

  • UNMAS action on tear gas, pepper spray/balls etc as civilian police Chemical Weapons.

  • Airstrikes on civilians: Whether delivered by drone or manned aircraft, indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilian zones must be explicitly classified as a 21C War Crime. UNMAS should support legal framing that treats such strikes as violations of international humanitarian law, especially when they result in mass displacement, infrastructure collapse, and long-term contamination.

In 2025, global war deaths are estimated at 120,000–180,000, with explosive weapons accounting for just a fraction at c.48k. Yet the humanitarian and legal weight of these deaths — especially those caused by banned or indiscriminate weapons — demands precision and escalation.

With the hopeful end of war in Gaza and Ukraine conflict deaths should thus fall significantly below 100k and mainly confined to Central Africa for more specific action.

An UNMAS review on likely 100k war deaths and $3TN arms spend and deterrence would be useful.

I also urge UNMAS to:

  • Hold Russia accountable with ICC for widespread mine deployment and contamination in Ukraine

  • Expose Myanmar’s junta with ICC for systematic landmine use across all 14 states and regions

  • Track Cartel-linked explosive use with ICC/FBI in Mexico and Central America, including IEDs and urban UXO

  • Support Haitian civil society with ICC/FBI in documenting armed group violence and explosive contamination

  • Coordinate with the African Union and ICC to enforce mine ban compliance, accelerate clearance, and embed mine action into regional Peacekeeping and reconstruction mandates

If mine action is to remain credible, it must be precise, treaty-aligned, and escalation-ready. 

I urge UNMAS to revise its reporting language, publish disaggregated casualty data, and embed treaty enforcement logic into all future advocacy and operational modules.

Tim Garbutt

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