Georgia

Casualties

Last updated: 10 October 2018

Casualties[1] 

All known casualties (through 2017)

1,307 mine/unexploded explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties: 226 killed and 1,081 injured*

 

No mine/ERW casualties were identified in Georgia in 2017 or 2016.[2] The Monitor identified two new civilian antivehicle mine casualties in South Ossetia in 2015.[3] 

In April 2018, two people were injured as they entered a marked mine field in Rustavi.[4] 

ICRC/Georgian Red Cross Society (GRCS) data identified mine/ERW casualties, or victims, in 10 regions of Georgia: Tbilisi, Kvemo Kartli, Shida Kartli, Imereti, Samegrelo, Svaneti, Samtskhe, Javakheti, Kakheti, and Achara. The data indicated that males made up 85% of mine/ERW casualties, while 15% were female.[5] Civilians made up 57% of the casualties with 43% military—combatants at the time of their incident or engaged in police/law enforcement duties. Casualties were caused by mines, ERW, and improvised mines (victim-activated improvised explosive devices).[6] 

GRCS volunteers, supported by the ICRC, collected data on 1,307 mine/ERW victims as of the end of 2017 (226 killed; 1,081 injured).[7] 

Cluster munition casualties

In Georgia, there have been at least 70 casualties due to cluster munitions; all were reported in 2008, including 61 casualties during strikes and nine due to unexploded submunitions.[8] 



[1] Unless otherwise indicated, casualty data for 2017 is based on Georgia Red Cross Society (GRCS) data, and on Monitor media monitoring from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017.

[2] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Nino Burtikashvili, Deputy Secretary General, GRCS, 6 June 2018.

[4] David Qashiashvili, “Explosion at the MIA training base - there are injured,” Rustavi 2, 29 April 2018.

[5] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Nino Burtikashvili, GRCS, 6 June 2018.

[6] Email from Nino Burtikashvili, GRCS, 29 August 2017.

[7] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Nino Burtikashvili, GRCS, 6 June 2018.

[8] Human Rights Watch (HRW), A dying practice: use of cluster munitions by Georgia and Russia in August 2008 (New York: HRW, April 2009), pp. 40 and 57. Russian cluster munition strikes on populated areas killed 12 civilians and injured 46. Georgian cluster munitions killed at least one civilian and injured at least two more when they landed on or near the towns of Tirdznisi and Shindisi.