Georgia

Casualties

Last updated: 27 October 2017

Casualties Overview

All known casualties by end 2016

At least 1,307 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties

Casualties in 2016

0 (2015: 2)

2016 casualties by survival outcome

0 (2015: 1 killed; 1 injured)

2016 casualties by device type

0

 

No mine/ERW casualties were identified in Georgia in 2016. In 2015, the Monitor identified two new civilian antivehicle mine casualties in Georgia, in South Ossetia.[1] This represents a similar low rate of casualties to recent years.

The ICRC and the Georgian Red Cross Society (GRCS), collected casualty data. GRCS volunteers, supported by the ICRC, collected data on 1,307 mine/ERW victims as of August 2017 (226 killed; 1,081 injured).[2] ICRC/GRCS data identified mine/ERW casualties, or victims, in 10 regions of Georgia: Tbilisi, Kvemo Kartli, Shida Kartli, Imereti, Samegrelo, Svaneti, Samtskhe, Javakheti, Kakheti, and Achara. The data indicated that males made up 85% of mine/ERW casualties, while 15% were female. Civilians made up 57% of the casualties with 43% military—combatants at the time of their incident or engaged in police/law enforcement duties. Casualties were caused by mines, ERW, and improvised mines (victim-activated improvised explosive devices).[3]

ICBL Georgian Committee (ICBL-GC) had collected information on 921 mine/ERW casualties as of the end of 2013, but had not resumed data collection or updated the database as of October 2017.[4]

Cluster munition casualties

In Georgia, there have been at least 70 casualties due to cluster munitions; all were reported in 2008, including 61 casualties during strikes and nine due to unexploded submunitions.[5]



[1]One man killed in an explosion of an anti-tank mine in Tskhinvali,” REGNUM, 20 May 2015.

[2] Email from Nino Burtikashvili, Deputy Secretary General, GRCS, 29 August 2017.

[3] Ibid., 17 August 2017.

[4] Emails from Maia Buchukuri, ICBL-GC, 28 July 2014, and 16 June 2017.

[5] Human Rights Watch (HRW), A dying practice: use of cluster munitions by Georgia and Russia in August 2008 (New York: HRW, April 2009), pp. 40 and 57. Russian cluster munition strikes on populated areas killed 12 civilians and injured 46. Georgian cluster munitions killed at least one civilian and injured at least two more when they landed on or near the towns of Tirdznisi and Shindisi.