Colombia

Casualties

Last updated: 16 November 2018

 

Casualties[1]

All known casualties (between 1990 and 2017)

11,048 mine/unexploded remnants of war (ERW) casualties: 2,248 killed and 8,800 injured

Casualties in 2017

Annual total

56

Decrease from
89 in 2016

Survival outcome

7 killed; 49 injured

Device type causing casualties

52 improvised antipersonnel mine; 4 ERW

Civilian status

40 civilians; 16 military

Age and gender

46 adults:
3 women; 43 men

10 children:
7 boys; 3 girls

Note: ERW = explosive remnants of war.

Casualties in 2017—details

Mine/ERW casualty data for the Republic of Colombia from the Department for Comprehensive Action Against Antipersonnel Mines (Dirección para la Acción Integral Contra Minas Antipersonal, DAICMA) for 2017 recorded 52 mine/ERW casualties. This marked a decrease from 2016 and continued a decline in total annual casualty numbers from previous years.

The ratio of civilian to military casualties was reversed for the first time in many years, a notable change in the trend of there being more military casualties.[2] Civilians made up 71% of recorded casualties in 2017, the highest percentage recorded since DAICMA collection data for 1990. In 2017, casualties were recorded in 10 departments: Antioquia, Arauca, Bolivar, Caqueta, Cauca, Choco, Guaviare, Meta, Nariño, and Norte de Santander.

Casualty numbers increased significantly in 2018. By end of September, over 100 casualties were recorded (12 people were killed and 94 injured). Civilians were also the majority of recorded casualties for 2018 through September (69, or 65%).

Since 1982, mine/ERW casualties have been recorded in all of Colombia’s 32 departments.[3]

Nearly all victim-activated explosives that can be triggered by the contact of a person are referred to as antipersonnel mines in the casualty data for Colombia. These casualties have been caused by victim-activated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that act like antipersonnel landmines, rather than by industrially manufactured antipersonnel mines.[4] If any accidents occurred in the past as a result of industrially produced landmines, before military bases were cleared of this type of landmine, they have not been recorded as such.[5]

Cluster munition casualties

As identified in Case No. 12.416 (Santo Domingo Massacre versus the Republic of Colombia) heard before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 17 civilians were killed and 27 were injured during a cluster munition strike in Santo Domingo, Colombia, on 13 December 1998.[6] No unexploded submunition casualties have been reported in Colombia.



[1] Unless otherwise indicated, casualty data for 2017 is based on: Department for Comprehensive Action Against Antipersonnel Mines (Dirección para la Acción Integral contra Minas Antipersonal, DAICMA) database updated to 30 September 2018.

[2] Civilians made up 47% of casualties in 2013, 36% in 2014, 27% in 2015, and 42% in 2016.

[3] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Lucy Johana Salgado Sanchez, Counsellor, DAICMA, 2 September 2015.

[4] ICRC, “Weapon contamination programming Colombia Activities and results achieved in 2010,” Bogota, undated, p. 2, document provided to the Monitor by email from Matthieu Laruelle, Regional Advisor for Latin America, Weapon Contamination Program, ICRC, 20 April 2011.

[5] Email from Camilo Serna, Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines (Campaña Colombiana Contra Minas, CCCM), 24 February 2017.

[6] Inter-American Court of Human Rights, “Case: Massacre of Santo Domingo vs. Colombia Sentence of 30 November 2012,” undated.