Casualties Overview

One new ERW casualty was reported in Kosovo in 2016. A female adult civilian was killed in Pristina in an incident with a hand grenade.[1] One ERW casualty was also reported in Kosovo in 2015.[2]

The 2016 casualty total was the same as that of 2015 and represented a decrease from 2014, when five casualties were reported. In 2013, no mine/ERW casualties were reported.[3] In 2012, seven mine/ERW casualties were identified in Kosovo in four separate incidents.[4] No casualties from antipersonnel mines in minefields have been reported in Kosovo since 2004.

Between 1999 and 2014, 575 mine/ERW casualties (116 killed; 459 injured) were identified in Kosovo. More than three quarters of all mine/ERW casualties (438, or 76%) were recorded between 1999 and 2000.[5]

Casualties continued in 2017. Two boys were injured in an ERW incident with a rifle grenade in March.[6]

Casualty data is received from the police and entered into the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database at the Kosovo Mine Action Center (KMAC). The data is considered by KMAC to be very accurate as all casualties are recorded.[7]

Cluster munition casualties

At least 180 casualties from incidents involving unexploded submunitions were recorded between 1999 and the end of 2014. There were no cluster munition casualties in 2015 or 2016. This total includes two new cluster munition casualties recorded in two separate incidents in 2014.[8] An additional 25 casualties, which occurred during cluster munition strikes in 1999, were also recorded.[9]