For the second consecutive year, Ukraine was the country with the highest number of victims of cluster bombs in 2023. This is according to the annual report released on Monday by the Coalition against Cluster Munitions (CMC), a global network that works to eradicate this type of bomb.
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The CMC report notes that In 2023, cluster munitions and their remnants caused 219 deaths or injuries in nine countries, almost half of them in Ukraine (90).
According to the report, since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory in February 2022, More than 1,000 people have been killed or injured by cluster bombs used by both the Russian and Ukrainian armies.
“The Russian armed forces have repeatedly used cluster munitions in Ukraine, causing civilian casualties, damaging civilian infrastructure and contaminating agricultural land. Ukrainian forces have also used cluster munitions, causing deaths and injuries among the civilian population,” CMC said.
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How do cluster bombs work and why are they so dangerous?
Delivered from the air or the ground, cluster bombs are weapons designed to disperse submunitions indiscriminately over large areas.
It is a kind of container that opens and scatters the submunitions, many of which do not detonate immediately, thus becoming ‘landmines’ de facto‘which, in the long term, kill and maim dozens of people.
The Handicap International organization indicates that the radius of cluster bombs ‘can be similar to that of four football fields’, They therefore do not distinguish between civilian and military targets. Some cluster bombs can scatter up to 600 submunitions.
It has been reported that up to 40 percent of cluster munitions fail to explode on impact, allowing decades of intermittent detonations.
According to the United Nations, “up to 40 percent of cluster munitions have been reported to fail to explode on impact, allowing for decades of intermittent and random detonations. When war ends and communities return to ‘normal’, unexploded remnants are often activated (…) By failing to distinguish between civilians, civilian objects and military objectives, cluster bombs violate the rules of international humanitarian law.”
Handicap, in fact, points out that 98 percent of those injured by these munitions have been civilians returning to their homes after the end of armed conflicts.
According to the report of the Coalition against Cluster Munitions, since World War II, At least 35 states have developed or produced more than 200 types of cluster munitions.
However, These bombs are banned in 112 countries that have signed the 2008 Oslo Convention, whose signatories undertake to stop their use and production and to clean up areas contaminated by munitions.
An analysis by the Elcano Royal Institute also points out that these bombs do not have any impact during the course of a war, given that they can cause casualties in clashes when enemy forces are acting in the open, but not when it comes to armed groups well protected by armoured or armoured vehicles.
“There is no historical record in any of the countless conflicts in which they have been used, since they appeared on the battlefield during World War II, that demonstrates their decisive nature,” says analyst Jesús A. Núñez Villaverde.
Ukraine and other countries affected by cluster bombs
CMC indicates that in 2023 there was a decrease in the number of victims of cluster bombs compared to 2022, when 1,172 people were killed or injured. for this type of munitions, although he says the figure is likely to be much higher, since limited access to conflict zones and inconsistencies in reports from each country make it difficult to obtain definitive figures.
The report notes that in the case of Ukraine, at least 13 types of cluster munitions and three types of submunitions had been used by July 2024.
CMC notes that all victims of cluster munition attacks occurred in countries that have not signed the 2008 Convention, such as Ukraine. In addition to the European nation, cluster bombs have caused victims in Myanmar (at least 13) and Syria (15).
Cluster bomb victims were also identified last year in Azerbaijan, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Mauritania and Yemen, although not from direct attacks but from the explosion of remnants of these weapons after having been used previously.
According to the report, By 2023, 93 percent of cluster bomb victims and their remains were civilians, i.e. 203 out of 219, and only 16 victims were military personnel. Among the victims there are at least 54 minors.
There is no historical record in any of the countless conflicts in which they have been used that demonstrates their decisive nature.
According to CMC, cluster bomb attacks in 2023 directly affected schools and hospitals, while unexploded bombs hampered access to agricultural land, impacting food security in affected countries.
“Men and boys engaged in activities such as farming, tending livestock, collecting scrap metal or accessing dangerous areas to collect firewood and other natural resources remain the main groups at risk of being harmed by cluster munition remnants in 2023,” the document reads.
The data also show that 26 states are contaminated by cluster bomb remnants or are suspected of being so, including Chile, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Germany and Iran.
Progress in the fight against cluster bombs
The report stresses that signatory states to the UN Convention have collectively destroyed 100 percent of their stockpiles of cluster bombs, which is equivalent to approximately 1.49 million munitions and 179 million submunitions. It also highlights that since the entry into force of the Convention, no State Party has produced new cluster munitions.
However, the report warns of a group of 17 countries that continue to produce or have produced this type of munitions in the past and have not signed the Convention to stop doing so. This is the case of the United States, Israel, Brazil, China, Egypt, Iran, Greece, India, North Korea, South Korea, among others.
“Cluster Munition Monitor found evidence of new cluster munitions being produced in India, Myanmar, Russia and South Korea during the reporting period, but the overall lack of transparency means production may have taken place in other countries on the list of producers,” the report said.
The text also reports a decrease in the clearing of areas contaminated with cluster bombs, compared to what was done in 2022. Last year, the states parties to the Oslo Convention cleared 83.91 square kilometers contaminated by cluster bombs, while in 2022 it was 93.49 square kilometers.
“The clean-up was particularly affected by a general lack of domestic funding that has yet to return to pre-Covid-19 levels, while international funding priorities have shifted to Ukraine,” the Coalition says.
The CMC also called on countries that have not banned the production of cluster bombs, saying that “they endanger civilians and threaten the integrity and universality of the international treaty banning these heinous weapons.”
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