Casualties Overview

In 2016, the Monitor identified three landmine casualties in the State of Kuwait. Two Ethiopian shepherds were injured in a mine incident on Al-Salmi road in February,[1] and a Bangladeshi shepherd was killed by a landmine explosion in December, also in the Al-Salmi desert in southwestern Kuwait.[2] In March 2015, a Bangladeshi shepherd was killed and his colleague injured by a landmine near the Ahmad Al-Jaber base at Abdullah Port.[3] In April 2014, a Sudanese shepherd was killed in the north of the country.[4] In 2013, an Indian shepherd lost both legs and was blinded by a landmine in the Al-Salmi desert; in 2012, a Bangladeshi shepherd was killed.[5]

Three mine casualties were identified in 2011.[6] The casualty rate has remained low since sharply decreasing in 2008. People most affected by landmines in Kuwait are immigrants, mainly shepherds from southern Asia who work in the desert areas of the country and are often unaware of the mine/ERW threat.

From 1999 to the end of 2016, the Monitor identified 133 mine/ERW casualties in Kuwait (34 killed; 57 injured; 42 unknown).[7]

The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) recorded 1,405 mine/ERW casualties in Kuwait from August 1990 to 2002, including 85 killed and 1,026 injured by mines, and 119 killed and 175 injured by ERW.[8]

Between 1990 and 2006, at least 198 cluster munition remnants casualties were recorded in Kuwait (61 killed; 137 injured). These casualties were mostly clearance personnel.[9] It was reported that the one casualty severely injured in 2013 received support for his care through donations.[10]