Bosnia and Herzegovina

Casualties

Last updated: 26 June 2018

Casualties[1]

All known casualties (between 1992 and 2017)

8,388 mine/unexploded remnants of war (ERW) casualties[2]

1,758 mine/ERW casualties, including 615 people killed, since the beginning of 1996[3]

Casualties in 2017

Annual total

7

42% decrease from 12 in 2016

Survival outcome

3 killed; 4 injured

Device type causing casualties

3 antipersonnel mine; 1 antivehicle mine; 3 ERW

Civilian status

7 civilian

   

Age and gender

6 adults:
1 women; 5 men

1 child:
1 boy

 

Casualties in 2017—details

The 2017 casualty total represents a significant decrease from the 12 casualties reported by the Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine Action Center (BHMAC) for 2016. Only two casualties were reported in 2015.

BHMAC has recorded a total of 8,388 mine/ERW casualties.[4] In the post-war period, the number of casualties was 1,758, out of which 615 were killed.[5] The total number of demining casualties was reported to be 127, of which 51 were killed.[6]

Cluster munition casualties

No cluster munition casualties were reported in 2017, One casualty as the result of an unexploded cluster submunition of the KB-1 type was reported in 2016.[7] No new cluster munition casualties were reported in 2015.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) reported 226 cluster munition casualties, of which 45 were killed and 181 injured, as of 2017. BiH reported that information on these casualties was not complete but noted that five were deminers.[8] In each case, it was not reported how many of these casualties were included in the general BHMAC mine/ERW casualty database, nor was it specified if these casualties included casualties from attacks.[9] At least 86 casualties during cluster munition strikes in 1995 were identified in BiH.[10] These 86 casualties have been subtracted from the higher 232-total, pending clarification on how many casualties occurred due to cluster munition attacks in contrast to unexploded submunitions.



[1] Unless otherwise indicated, casualty data for 2017 is based on emails from Ljiljana Ilić, Interpreter, BHMAC, 26 February 2018, and 6 March 2018.

[2] Email from Ljiljana Ilić, BHMAC, 6 March 2018. This figure differs slightly from the total reached by adding the 8,379 reported by BHMAC for the end of 2016 and the seven casualties reported in 2017.

[3] “Report on Mine Action in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2016,” BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs, BiH Demining Commission, BHMAC, p. 6; and data for 2017 provided by Ljiljana Ilić, BHMAC, 6 March 2018.

[4] Email from Ljiljana Ilić, BHMAC, 6 March 2018.

[5] “Report on Mine Action in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2016,” BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs, BiH Demining Commission, BHMAC, p. 6.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.; and interview with Tarik Serak, BHMAC, and Saša Obradovič, BHMAC, in Geneva, 9 February 2017; email from BHMAC, 23 March 2017.

[8] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form H (for calendar year 2017).

[9] “Report on Mine Action in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2016,” BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs, BiH Demining Commission, BHMAC, p. 6.

[10] Handicap International (HI), Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities (Brussels: HI, May 2007), p. 60. Some 60 more casualties were reported during an aerial strike in which cluster munitions were used along with other weapons.