Casualties Overview

In 2016, there were at least 298 mine/ERW casualties in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar based on information provided by NGOs, UN agencies, the ICRC, and other organizations, as well as, by state and independent media reports. The majority of casualties (156) were male, at least six casualties were female, two were girls, and two boys. The vast majority of casualties were civilian, just 15 casualties were recorded as having been involved in military activities in 2016.[1]

The 2016 casualty total for Myanmar marks a significant increase from the 159 mine/ERW casualties recorded for Myanmar in 2015. It is more similar, however, to the 251 mine/ERW casualties recorded for 2014. It is a significantly higher number than the 161 recorded by the Mine Risk Working Group for Myanmar for 2016.[2]

The actual total number of casualties is expected to be much higher. Although the presence of a number of mine action actors and coverage of victim assistance programs increased, no national systematic collection of casualty data occurred. Due to the lack of an official data collection mechanism, the absence of any basic reporting format or means of sharing data, and the varying sources of annual data available to the Monitor, reporting is believed not to reflect the full extent of mine/ERW incidents and casualties in the country.[3]

It was reported that the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief, and Resettlement stated that landmines had injured or killed 298 people in Myanmar in 2015 and 2016, and that there was one landmine casualty “every three days.” The reported also cited the ministry as saying, “One in three landmine victims is a child, and one in every four is killed.”[4]

In August 2016, the Ministry of Health and Sports released data on landmine fatalities for the first time. The ministry reported that 101 people had died as a result of antipersonnel landmine incidents in Myanmar during the 18-month period from January 2015 to June 2016. Of that total, 74 deaths due to landmines occurred in Kachin state, 14 in Shan state, 11 in Chin state, and one each in Kayah and Rakhine states. It appears that this number includes only civilian fatalities and not military and other combatants killed. The Ministry of Health and Sports did not provide data on the number of people injured.[5]

As in all past years, the available data contained insufficient detail to distinguish trends or to ensure that the data for all casualties was correctly recorded by the source. The actual number of casualties is likely to be much higher.

The total number of casualties in Myanmar is unknown. The Monitor reported annual casualty figures of 3,991 (488 killed; 3,385injured; 118 unknown) between 1999 and the end of 2016. Past reporting by the Monitor has indicated that there are a significant number of military casualties, but such military records remain unavailable to the public.[6]