“Civilians accounted for 90 percent of the victims. “In 2024,” said Loren Persi, Impact team leader for the report. “And children continued to be a significant portion of all victims, almost half… In Afghanistan, 77 percent, or more than three-quarters of all victims, were children, which is horrible.”
The launch was led by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and organized by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).
States withdrawing from the treaty
The report warns that he Mine Ban Treaty of 1997 faces its most serious challenge in decadesand several state parties are taking steps that “concretely threaten the continued health of the convention,” said Ban’s policy editor, Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan.
Five European States Parties – Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland – are taking steps to legally withdraw, citing dramatically altered security conditions following Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
On Ukraine itself, Moser-Puangsuwan noted that the government argues that it can “suspend” certain treaty obligations while fighting an international armed conflict, a position the Monitor disputes based on the treaty’s legal framework.
The report also cites indications of new use of mines in Ukraine in 2024-2025, including devices apparently deployed by drones, although the extent remains unclear.
The Monitor confirms the extensive use of mines by Burma and the Russian Federationand reports accusations of use by Cambodian forces along the Thai border. Thailand has presented evidence of recently laid mines that injured its soldiers.
An unexploded bomb is on display in the Syrian governorate of Raqqa.
Pollution spreads
Anti-personnel mine contamination affects at least 57 states and other areas, including 32 States Parties. Seven remain “massively” contaminated: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Türkiye and Ukraine.
There was some progress. Oman completed the cleanup in 2025, the first State Party to do so since 2020, and more than half of affected States Parties reduced pollution through survey and cleanup efforts last year.
But the broader picture is worrying.
“Despite overall positive progress, the aspirational goal of completing authorization by 2025 is still far from being achieved,” said lead researcher Katrin Atkins.
“The vision of a mine-free world has not been accompanied by adequate resources and efforts on the ground.. 2030 seems to be the new 2025.”
Financing crisis
The worsening funding gap is already undermining mine action programmes.
Ruth Bottomley, the Monitor’s mine action finance research leader, said heavy reliance on a few major donors – particularly the United States – has left the sector vulnerable.
“In 2025, the United States imposed a funding freeze across the sector,” he said. “This paralyzed some mine action programs and ended others… highlighting the vulnerability of mine action funding with its dependence on a few major donors.”
Programs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Colombia, Tajikistan and Zimbabwe They have already closed. Assistance to victims has been especially affected, with the drop in international support 23 percent. Health systems weakened by conflict in countries like Ukraine and Palestine are struggling amid a sharp rise in amputations.
Call for renewed commitment
Presenters warned that without greater funding, political resolve and enforcement, mine contamination will grow faster than humanitarian organizations can respond, leaving millions of people at risk for decades to come.