Eritrea
Casualties
Casualties Overview
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All known casualties by end 2016 |
The total known number of mine/ explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties in Eritrea is 5,299 (2,522 killed; 2,777 injured).[1] |
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Casualties in 2016 |
Unknown (2015: unknown) |
In 2016, the Monitor did not identify any landmine/ERW casualties in The State of Eritrea. There is no systematic, reliable available data collection in Eritrea with respect to mine/ERW casualties. Since 2013 the Eritrean Demining Authority (EDA) has not provided any casualty data. There is reason, however, to believe that casualties occurred in 2016 but were not systematically recorded.[2] For 2016, UNICEF reported seven landmine/ERW accidents, a decrease from the 22 incidents identified by UNICEF in 2015. However, statistics on casualties caused by the incidents were not reported.[3]
The total known number of mine/ERW casualties in Eritrea is 5,299 (2,522 killed; 2,777 injured).[4] The EDA recorded 802 casualties (206 killed, 596 injured) between 2000 and the end of 2012, including 365 from 2005–2011 (86 killed, 279 injured).[5] The Eritrea Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) remains the most extensive source of cumulative casualty data, identifying 4,934 mine/ERW casualties up to June 2004 (2,436 killed, 2,498 injured).[6] Previous estimates of tens of thousands of mine casualties in Eritrea in total remain unconfirmed.[7] However, the LIS data collection was limited to communities that reported mine contamination.[8] Therefore, it is likely that the LIS does not record veterans injured and killed by mines from urban localities.
Cluster munition casualties
At least 172 cluster munition casualties have been reported in Eritrea; 163 of which were reported as occurring during cluster munition attacks, all in 2000 or earlier. Another nine casualties of unexploded cluster submunitions were also recorded.[9] No further information on whether there had been casualties caused by cluster munition remnants was available.
[1] The total includes the casualties from the Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) to June 2004 and casualties recorded by the Eritrean Demining Authority (EDA) for 2005–2010; data emailed from Habtom Seghid, EDA, 20 April 2013; and casualties for 2011–2013 reported in Eritrea’s Article 5 Extension Request.
[2] UNICEF-Eritrea, Mine Risk Education Picture Book, undated, p. 4.
[3] UNICEF, “UNICEF Annual Report 2016: Eritrea,” undated, p. 3.
[4] The total includes the casualties from the Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) to June 2004 and casualties recorded by the EDA for 2005–2010; data emailed from Habtom Seghid, EDA, 20 April 2013; and casualties for 2011–2013 reported in Eritrea’s Article 5 Extension Request.
[5] Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline Extension Request (revised), August 2011, p. 11; emails from Habtom Seghid, EDA, 30 March 2012 and 20 April 2013; and interview with Habtom Seghid, EDA, 25 May 2012; Article 5 Extension Request.
[6] See ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2005 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2005),
[7] A disability study report in 2008 indicated that the total number of persons with disabilities was 75,212. The number of mine/ERW survivors was not reported. Email from Gbemi Akinboyo, Chief, Child Protection, UNICEF, 14 September 2009. In 2006, the MoLHW reported that there were 84,000 mine survivors in Eritrea from a total of 150,000 persons with disabilities. ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2006.
[8] Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline Extension Request, 31 March 2011, p. 11.
[9] On 22 April 1990, two cluster munitions were reported to have been used in an overcrowded street in the center of the port town of Massawa. Human Rights Watch, Africa Watch, “Ethiopia, ‘Mengistu has Decided to Burn Us like Wood,’ Bombing of Civilians and Civilian Targets by the Air Force,” News from Africa Watch, 24 July 1990, p. 4; and Handicap International (HI), Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster Munitions (Brussels: HI: November 2006), p. 18.