The Munich-based aid organization Handicap International counts more people killed and injured by cluster munitions than ever before in 2022. Most of the more than 1,000 people affected – almost all civilians – were in Ukraine.
According to the aid organization Handicap International, 1,172 people were killed or injured by cluster munitions worldwide last year. This is the highest number of victims in the annual Cluster Bomb Monitor since its first publication in 2010, said the Munich-based organization. The result was mainly due to the use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, it said.
In the past year, people have also been victims of cluster munitions in Azerbaijan, Iraq, Yemen, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Myanmar and Syria. According to the information, 95 percent of all registered fatalities and injuries came from the civilian population.
“Dangerous Precedent”
Most of the injured and dead were in Ukraine, with a total of 890. According to the report, this is mainly due to the extensive use of cluster munitions by Russia. But the Ukrainian armed forces also used cluster munitions. The US government’s decision in July 2023 to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine sets a “dangerous precedent,” Handicap International said.
“It is unscrupulous that civilians are still dying from cluster munition attacks 15 years after these weapons were banned,” said Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch, which compiled the report. According to the campaign report, there were significantly fewer victims last year than in 2022: 149 people worldwide were injured or killed by cluster munitions in 2021.
Convention of 124 States
Cluster munitions are among the most dangerous weapons for civilians because they can continue to cause casualties long after the conflict has ended, Handicap International writes in the report. In 2022, 185 people fell victim to cluster munition residues. Those who survived the cluster munition explosion often lost their hands and feet or suffered serious injuries to vital organs.
Cluster munitions consist of many small explosive devices that are fired in containers from rocket launchers or fighter jets and spread over large areas. The Cluster Bomb Ban Treaty (Oslo Convention), which came into force on August 1, 2010, has been signed by 124 states and ratified by 112 to date. They ban weapons, promise to destroy stocks and help clean up contaminated areas.
Unlike Germany, neither Russia nor Ukraine, Myanmar, Syria or the USA are among the signatories. The next Conference of States Parties will take place in Geneva from 11 to 14 September.