Arakan State accounts for 30% of landmine casualties nationwide in first eight months of 2021: UNOCHA

By DMG 09 Oct 2021

DMG Newsroom
9 October 2021, Sittwe

Sixty-seven percent of all landmine casualties in Myanmar over the first eight months of 2021 were in Arakan and Shan states, according to an October 8 statement from United Nations OCHA Myanmar.

More than 90 incidents occurred between January and August, killing 53 people and injuring 102 others, the statement said.

Landmine blasts killed 12 people and injured 35 in Arakan State, while 24 were killed and 34 were injured in Shan State.

Many internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State have not returned to their homes for fear of landmines, said Daw Oo Nwe Lin, an IDP from Pyaing Taing village in Kyauktaw Township who is currently sheltering at a displacement camp in Sittwe.

“We want to return home but we can’t because we are afraid of landmines near the villages. I would like to ask the concerned officials to clear the landmines so that we can return home,” she said.

From March 2020 to March 2021, 602 people from 172 villages and 78 IDP camps in Rathedaung, Buthidaung, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Minbya townships were educated in landmine awareness with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), according to the Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC).

The REC is conducting landmine risk education in Ponnagyun Township, according to U Zaw Zaw Tun, the civil society organisation’s secretary.

“We are currently conducting landmine risk education without financial support from donors and NGOs. We are negotiating with local authorities to provide landmine risk awareness and education at schools,” he added. “We will continue to provide landmine risk education if our coordination with the schools is OK.”

At least 49 people were killed and 79 others were injured in landmine and explosive remnant of war (ERW) encounters during some two years of fighting between the military and the Arakan Army (AA) in Arakan State, and most of the victims were children, according to figures from the REC.