Leftover Landmines and Unexploded Munitions

Olympia World Affairs Council

Global Update September 2025

Gary Walker, Board Member

The idea that once peace is achieved and the fighting stops, then the damage and horror would also stop. The reality of these many conflicts is that death, injury, and destruction still continue even when the conflict could have ended over a century ago. The main reason is the untold number of landmines and unexploded munitions that are left in the regions.

Landmines have been used to prevent entry into an area and to protect facilities or military forces from enemy attacks. Unexploded munitions are usually artillery shells or bombs dropped from aircraft or fired from naval ships. During the conflicts, little effort was made to dismantle or remove the landmines and there was no means to tell if the bombs exploded or were duds due to falling behind enemy lines.

Landmines generally fall into three categories. One is anti-personnel landmines which are designed to kill or injury personnel who come into contact with them. The other type are anti-tank landmines which are designed to damage or destroy tanks, armored vehicles, or other types of vehicles. A third type are cluster munitions. They are small bombs that are delivered by artillery, air-dropped or by rocket. The larger munition is launched and when it is over the target area, it releases these smaller cluster munitions that are spread across large areas.

Landmines are generally activated by pressure, meaning they explode when stepped on or driven over. In general, landmines have not had any sort of timer that causes them to self-destruct and, thus, remain in the area until eventually something or someone triggers them.

Unexploded munitions pose the same problem and potentially could cause more massive damage. These bombs, shells, grenades, land and naval mines, cluster bombs and other sorts of munitions did not explode when they were deployed and remain at risk for detonation, sometimes many decades after they were used or discarded. One example are the leftover or unexploded bombs from World War I that contain poisonous gases and chemicals. A lot of these non-landmine type of unexploded munitions are very heavy, contain large amounts of explosives, and are buried deeper in the ground. As a consequence, they are not usually located until an excavation of the site occurs, i.e. when a new building is being constructed, etc.

There are estimated to be over 100 million unexploded landmines still buried worldwide with some countries such as Egypt having an estimated 23 million, Iran with 16 million, and Afghanistan and Iraq with 10 million each. In these affected countries, the area of contamination estimates vary from over 100 square kilometers to less than 5 square kilometers. These munitions have caused over 5,000 casualties each year with the vast majority being civilians, especially children. In 2023, for example, Myanmar had over 1000 casualties, Afghanistan had over 650, and Ethiopia and Iraq had over 100 casualties each. For a look at more in depth statistical data, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines website is a great source.

Unexploded munitions also contaminate a number of countries around the world. Some of the areas are specific, such as military training areas, but other areas are unknown or unknowable until an excavation or construction begins. Another region contaminated by unexploded munitions that are usually not recognized are the global oceans. The unexploded munitions found there come from the numerous naval battles fought at sea. Additionally, following the end of a conflict, countries have dumped large amounts of leftover munitions in to the sea, usually on the littoral coast. They remain there until something or someone disturbs them.

It is apparent that the issue of landmines and unexploded munitions are not limited to a specific country, region, or continent. It is global and poses an ongoing threat to people trying to live normal lives regardless of their occupation. Children are especially vulnerable by not only helping their families on their farms or other occupations but these munitions are often shiny and enticing because they look like they could be a toy. These munitions do not only kill people but cause severe injuries, disabilities, and physical handicaps they will have to endure for the remainder of their lives. A number of the most affected countries do not have adequate healthcare systems to support their wounded citizens and thus this assistance generally falls to international organizations, the UN, or foreign assistance from other countries.

Another impact of these unexploded munitions is their demographic and economic fallout. Land that is suspected of containing these unexploded munitions are less likely to be used whether it is for building, agriculture, or other purposes. This results in a long term issue and potentially causes large damage to a country’s or region’s economy. If people cannot live or work there, they will migrate to another location and this will cause a loss of revenue and a decline in the overall development and prosperity of that region. Other sectors of a society which are also negatively affected include foreign direct investment, education, aid distribution, industrialization, and the environment.

So, what can be done to resolve this situation and help prevent future casualties? The obvious answer is to eliminate these dangers entirely or prevent them from occurring in the future whether they are landmines or unexploded munitions. Information about where landmines are planted or scattered is not reliable or totally accurate. Records can be lost or never generated or harsh weather conditions like floods could relocate these landmines to other areas are just two examples. The unexploded munitions face these harsh environmental factors as well but the weight and size of these unexploded bombs or artillery shells could result in them being buried deeper into the ground and not easily detectable or visible to the human eye.

The United Nations Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction was enacted in 1997 and is the international agreement that bans antipersonnel landmines. 133 countries have signed the treaty and is usually referred to as the Ottawa Convention or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty. Since its inception, the Convention has led to a virtual halt in global production of anti-personnel mines, and a drastic reduction in their deployment. More than 40 million stockpiled mines have been destroyed, and assistance has been provided to survivors and populations living in the affected areas.

However, this treaty has not been universally accepted or implemented. Here are some examples of this nonacceptance:

·      Estonia, Lavia, Lithuania, and Poland are withdrawing from the treaty due to increasing security threats from Russia and Belorussia.

·      Finland is considering withdrawing for the same reason.

·      Russia and Ukraine are both using landmines in their ongoing conflict.

·      Russia and the United State have not signed the treaty.

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) is a service located within the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations that specializes in coordinating and implementing activities to limit the threat posed by mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices. It was created to act as the "UN focal point" regarding mine action and works to support the vision of a "world free of the threat of landmines and unexploded ordnance. The work of UNMAS is divided into the 5 Pillars of Mine Action:

1.     Clearance

2.     Mine Risk Education

3.     Victim Assistance

4.     Advocacy

5.     Stockpile Destruction

The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) is an international treaty that prohibits all use, transfer, production, and stockpiling of cluster munitions. As of September 2024, a total of 124 states are committed to the goal of the convention, with 112 states that have ratified it, and 12 states that have signed the convention but not yet ratified it. The United States, Russia, China, and India are not parties to this treaty.

Countries that ratify the convention are obliged "never under any circumstances to":

a.     Use cluster munitions;

b.     Develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, cluster munitions;

c.     Assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.

The treaty allows certain types of weapons with submunitions that do not have the indiscriminate area effects or pose the same unexploded munition risks as cluster munitions. Permitted weapons must contain fewer than ten submunitions, and each must weigh more than 4 kilograms (8.8 lb.), and each submunition must have the capability to detect and engage a single target object and contain electronic self-destruct and self-deactivation mechanisms.

Turning to the actual removal of these landmines and unexploded munitions, the demining process can take several paths. The first path is the operations undertaken by a country’s military forces and the second is for humanitarian purposes.

In military operations, the object is to rapidly clear a path through a minefield, and this is often done with devices such as mine plows and blast waves. By contrast, the goal of humanitarian demining is to remove all of the landmines to a given depth and make the land safe for human use. Humanitarian demining is a broad effort to reduce the social, economic and environmental damage of mines.

Humanitarian demining differs from military demining in several ways. Military demining operations require speed and reliability under combat conditions to safely bypass a mine field so it is more acceptable if some mines are missed in the process. Humanitarian demining aims to reduce risk for deminers and civilians as much as possible by removing (ideally) all landmines and demining work can usually be temporarily halted if unfavorable circumstances arise.

There are several methods for the conventional detection of these landmines. They include prodders (pointed sticks or knifes), metal detectors, dogs, and mine clearing machines. Experimentation is underway in developing other methods such as electromagnetic means, use of other animals such as rats or honeybees, bacteria, and ground penetrating x-rays and radar.

However, the removal or elimination of unexploded munitions are a different story. Many weapons, including aerial bombs in particular, are discovered during construction work, after lying undetected for decades. Having failed to explode while resting undiscovered is no guarantee that a bomb will not explode when disturbed. Such discoveries are common in heavily bombed cities.

Where there is known to be the potential for the threat of unexploded ordnance, a remote investigation can be done by visual interpretation of available historical aerial photographs. Modern techniques can combine geophysical and survey methods with modern electromagnetic and magnetic detectors. This provides digital mapping of unexploded munition contamination with the aim to better target subsequent excavations, reducing the cost of digging on every metallic contact and speeding the clearance process. Magnetometer probes can detect unexploded munitions and provide geotechnical data before drilling or piling is carried out.

In summary, the death, injury, and destruction caused by landmines and unexploded munitions continue to impact countries, regions, and the people who live there. Efforts are underway to remove or neutralize these munitions but there is no absolute, foolproof method to insure that an area is completely clear. As a result, the damage to people, property, and geographic areas will continue into the foreseeable future. One thing to note is that some nations with large or dominant military forces have not signed these UN treaties and Conventions and thus retain the ability to continue to use these munitions as they feel situations dictate.

Information obtained through a variety of sources including BBC, The Economist, New York Times, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, NPR, The Arms Control Association, UN, NBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, Wikipedia, and others.