Poland and the Baltic states said on Tuesday that they want to withdraw from an international treaty banning anti-personnel mines, citing Russia’s growing military threat. In a joint statement, the defence ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland said they “unanimously recommend withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention”.
The 1997 treaty — which prohibits the use, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines — has been ratified or acceded to by more than 160 countries. Russia has not joined the agreement, and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine has turned the war-torn country into the most mine-laden nation in the world, according to reports.
Read more…
Source: Euronews
Sign up for Counter-IED Report Newsletter
Related:
- Norway to provide NOK 60 m for mine action in Sri Lanka
March 6, 2019
The Government is providing NOK 60 million (around Rs. 1.2 billion) over a period of three years for mine action in Sri Lanka. “Sri Lanka has been heavily contaminated by landmines, but the country is now approaching its goal of becoming mine-free. This year, Norway holds the presidency of the Mine Ban Treaty, and intends to ...
- Two students hacked consumer drones to detect landmines
February 11, 2019
Landmines or anti-personnel explosives have been prohibited since 1977, however, so many of them have been used around the world that they continue to kill or injure around 10 people per day. The mines are hidden from sight and some of them, like the Russian-made Butterfly mine, are near impossible to detect with traditional mine-sweeping ...
- Mosul’s ‘3D contamination’ adds to challenges of deadly mine clearance work
February 7, 2019
Government-led military campaigns and conflict to retake Iraq’s cities from the extremists, also known as Da’esh, displaced more than 5.8 million people between 2014 and 2017. Many are still homeless or unable to return home because of what UNMAS calls “significant explosive hazard contamination” linked to airstrikes and improvised explosive devices left behind by ISIL and ...
- Rising landmine blast toll in Afghanistan highlights long-term care needs of survivors
February 6, 2019
Latest data from UNMAS, the UN Mine Action Service, shows that 1,415 Afghan civilians were killed or injured by mines and so-called explosive remnants of war (ERW) in 2018. Children make up eight in 10 of ERW casualties, according to UNMAS, which is attending the 22nd Meeting of Mine Action National Directors and United Nations Advisers ...
- There’s only one way to tackle Ukraine’s infestation of mines … slowly
January 31, 2019
“I am not afraid,” says 80 year-old Lidiya Korolyova as she walks across a snow-covered field to check on a suspicious object. It might be a landmine, lying in wait among the trees not far from her village of Ozerne in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. When she first noticed it in 2014, she ...
- Lebanon’s BRIC applies tech solutions to clearing landmines
January 27, 2019
The Israeli No 4 landmine has a peculiar design – approach it the right way, and it can be easily neutralized and destroyed. Approach it the wrong way, and things could go terribly wrong, very quickly. A de-miner is on Lebanon’s infamous Blue Line, working carefully and purposefully, to detect and clear a line of landmines, ...
- Blast kills 5 demining experts in Yemen: security source
January 20, 2019
An explosion killed five demining specialists in war-torn Yemen’s central province of Maarib on Sunday, security and medical sources said. A pro-government security official, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the the five were foreign experts working on the Saudi-backed Masam landmine clearance project. AFP could not independently confirm which countries they came from. The ...
- South Sudan could be mine-free in 5 years: UN official
January 19, 2019
South Sudan in the next five years would be cleared of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) left behind by more than two decades of war, a United Nations mines agency official said on Wednesday evening. Speaking at a ceremony for disposal of a large aircraft bomb that was found some 1.8 km west of the country’s ...
- Britain grants funding for UXO clearance in Laos
January 17, 2019
Mines Advisory Group (MAG) Laos has been granted more than 38 billion kip (4.5 million U.S. dollars) in funding from the British government for its unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance operations in Laos. With the grant, MAG will conduct UXO clearance for 13 months in Xieng Khuang province in northern Laos, along with UXO clearance, a non-technical ...
- Mali: ‘Dire’ humanitarian situation, ‘grave’ security concerns challenge fragile peace
January 16, 2019
Bintou Keita, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations in Africa, also apprised the Council of the alarming security situation in the central and northern areas of the African State, saying it was “of grave concern,” and provided “a major challenge” to implementing the UN-backed 2015 peace agreement. The Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali was signed ...
- Yemen: Land mines take heavy toll on civilians
January 9, 2019
Thousands of land mines and improvised explosive devices are killing and maiming civilians in southwestern Yemen, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today, calling on the Yemeni authorities and specialized demining organizations to clear explosive devices from civilian areas. As fighting intensified between Ansar Allah troops and forces supported by ...
- Mine Ban Nears 20th Anniversary
January 8, 2019
With the Mine Ban Treaty approaching its 20th anniversary in March, delegates to the annual meeting of states-parties in November welcomed progress on many treaty requirements and again “condemned the use of anti-personnel mines by any actor” as they reaffirmed their “aspiration to meet the goals of the to the fullest extent possible by ...
- Ukrainian parliament adopts legal framework for mine action, with OSCE advice provided
December 10, 2018
Ukraine’s Mine Action Law was adopted by the parliament on 6 December 2018, after consultations with the Project Co-ordinator, who provided advice on the content. It establishes a framework for humanitarian demining, divides responsibilities among state institutions, and envisages the creation of a mine action centre. Since 2015, the Project Co-ordinator has focused its efforts on ...
- Sri Lanka to be declared as a mine-free country by 2020
December 7, 2018
Sri Lanka acceded to the Mine Ban Convention, very well known as the Ottawa Convention, in 2017 which came into force from 1 June. The objective of the Mine Ban Convention is to end the suffering and casualties caused by the Anti-Personal Mines (APM) and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) by banning the production, use, ...
- Land mines pose lingering threat in Yemen
December 7, 2018
Months after heavy clashes between Houthi rebels and pro-government fighters forced them to flee their coastal village in Yemen’s western province of Taiz, the Ghaleb family had finally returned home. But their relief was cut short just days later when a land mine left in their home exploded, wounding their 7-year-old son. The blast ripped off ...
- CMAC cleared over 30,000 land mines in first 10 months
December 4, 2018
The Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) cleared more than 30,000 land mines from 75sq km in the first 10 months of this year, the organisation’s director-general said on Monday. Heng Ratana, speaking at a CMAC meeting, said the organisation aims to clear a further 116sq km of mines in the next two months. Progress usually slows ...
- Myanmar: Civilians bear brunt of landmine explosions in Shan State
October 30, 2018
Civilians in northern Shan State are bearing the brunt of clashes that have been going on since 2011 between the military and armed ethnic groups, including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). Landmines and other explosives have killed or injured civilians. During the past three months, at least nine people have been the victims of mines in northern ...
- UNMAS supports UK DFID delegation visit to Mosul
October 18, 2018
The presence of explosive hazards, including improvised explosive devices in areas liberated from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), will continue to impede security and stability efforts as well as development initiatives until these are cleared and rendered safe. A delegation from DFID was recently hosted by UNMAS in Mosul and had the ...
- North and South Korea begin removing landmines along their heavily fortified border as part of peace summit deal
October 2, 2018
The two Koreas started removing landmines along a section of their heavily fortified border on Monday as part of a summit deal to ease military tensions. The agreement between the nations – which are technically still at war – was reached at a meeting in North Korea‘s capital Pyongyang last month. The summit was the third this year ...
- Landmine kills three boys playing in an ‘abandoned house’ in Ukraine
September 30, 2018
Three boys have been killed after triggering a landmine in eastern Ukraine. The boys, aged between 13 and 15, were from Horlivka, a city controlled by separatist forces. The town’s mayor, Ivan Prikhodko, wrote on social media that a 10-year-old boy is also in hospital with shrapnel injuries. Mr Prikhodko told AFP: “They found an abandoned house and ...
- EU contributes additional 1.1 mln euros to de-mining project in Bosnia and Herzegovina
September 25, 2018
The European Union (EU) will contribute an additional 1.1 million euros (1.29 million U.S. dollars) to the de-mining projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), an agreement signed here on Monday shows. The money will be divided in two projects that will have the end goal of clearance of mines. The first project relates to reconnaissance of ...
- Yemen Houthis mass-produced mines and IEDs using Iranian components, CAR report finds
September 24, 2018
A new report by Conflict Armament Research has found that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have standardized and mass-produced improvised explosive devices with components, some of which originate in Iran. Evidence collected by the research organization suggests that the use of landmines and IEDs is widespread and has increased as Houthi forces retreat from coalition advances, and that ...