South Sudan

Casualties

Last updated: 16 June 2017

Casualties Overview

All known casualties by end 2016

At least 4,917 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties (1,360 killed; 3,557 injured) since 1964

Casualties occurring in 2016

43 (2015: 76)

2016 casualties by survival outcome

13 killed; 30 injured (2015: 19 killed; 57 injured)

2016 casualties by device type

1 antipersonnel mine; 3 antivehicle mines; 3 cluster munitions; 29 ERW; 7 unknown

 

In 2016, the Monitor identified 43 mine/ERW casualties in the Republic of South Sudan.[1] Of the total casualties, 41 were civilians and two were deminers. Among casualties recorded for 2016, 37 were male and six were female; 27 were adults (23 men and four women), and 16 or 37% were children (14 boys and two girls).

The total of 43 casualties identified in 2016 was much less than the 76 identified in 2015.[2] However, the 76 casualties identified in 2015 were nearly double the number reported in 2014 (38).[3] South Sudan attributed the increase in casualties in 2015 to population movements.[4]

The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) reported that there is no formal data collection system in place in South Sudan, and as of March 2017, such a system is unlikely to be developed due to the huge humanitarian problems faced in the country. The figures, particularly the more recent ones, are substantially unreliable and most likely significantly underestimate the problem.[5]

A total of 4,917 mine/ERW casualties (1,360 killed; 3,557 injured) were reported in South Sudan from 1964 through the end of December 2016.[6]

Casualties continued to be reported in 2017. In February one girl was injured by an antipersonnel mine, and a boy and a girl were killed by an ERW grenade.[7]

Cluster munition casualties

At least 91 cluster munition casualties have been reported in South Sudan. In 2016, three unexploded cluster submunition casualties were reported by UNMAS. As of December 2016, 75 casualties caused by unexploded submunitions (23 killed and 52 injured), were reported, the majority occurring in 2009 or before.[8] A further 16 casualties that occurred during cluster munition strikes in South Sudan have been reported.[9]



[1] Email from Tim Lardner, Programme Manager, UNMAS South Sudan, 17 March 2017.

[2] The Landmine and Cluster Munition report for 2016 reported that there were 75 casualties in 2015. This figure has been revised to 76, based on updated data received by email from Tim Lardner, UNMAS South Sudan, 17 March 2017.

[3] UNMAS South Sudan, “IMSMA Monthly Report,” December 2015.

[4] South Sudan, Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2015), Form J.

[5] Email from Tim Lardner, UNMAS South Sudan, 17 March 2017.

[6] Ibid., and 21 March 2017.

[7] Email from Tim Lardner, UNMAS South Sudan, 17 March 2017.

[8] Ibid.; and see South Sudan’s 2015 Casualty and Victim Assistance country profile.

[9] Handicap International (HI), Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities (Brussels: HI, May 2007), p. 56; and Titus Peachey and Virgil Wiebe, “Chapter IV: Cluster Munition Use in Sudan,” Clusters of Death (The Mennonite Central Committee: July 2000), pp. 79–85. The casualties during cluster munition strikes were reported in locations including Akak, Bahr el Ghazal, Nimule, Magwi county, and Yei county in South Sudan in the period 1995–2000.