The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention’s Seventeenth Meeting of the States Parties (17MSP) concluded in Geneva recording success in stockpile destruction and mine clearance in the Middle East and West Africa.
While progress was welcome, the Conference agreed that new contamination by anti-personnel mines of an improvised nature should be reported and treated under the Convention in the same manner as factory-made mines.
Afghanistan which chaired the Convention throughout 2018, called on the Parties to actively recognise the increasing threat of anti-personnel mines of an improvised nature, mostly in use by armed non-state actors, which has driven up the global figures of casualties.
“Countering the threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which killed over 2,200 Afghans in 2017 alone, is an imperative being pursued by Afghanistan nationally and internationally,” said the Afghan Presidency of the treaty.
Afghanistan reported 2,288 mine casualties in 2017 including 159 women, 866 men, and 1,263 children. Of these, 793 persons were killed.
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Source: AP Mine Ban Convention