Landmine casualties fell by a quarter last year, an activist group said, reaching the lowest number since it started compiling records.
"In 2013, recorded casualties caused by mines, victim-activated improvised explosive devices, cluster munition remnants, and other explosive remnants of war decreased to the lowest level since the Monitor started recording casualties in 1999," the International Campaign to Ban Landmines said late Wednesday in the United States.
A total of 3308 landmine-related casualties were recorded in 2013, or about nine casualties a day, a decline of 24 per cent from 2012, when 4,325 people were either killed or maimed by the weapons, according to the latest edition of the group's Landmine Monitor.
When the group started compiling figures in 1999, the figure was around 25 people a day, it said.
Around 79 per cent of 2013 victims were civilians, it said.
A 1997 UN treaty prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of mines, and has been ratified by 162 states.
Following updates from Bhutan, Hungary and Venezuela in October, 28 states have declared themselves landmine free, while a further 56 continue to identify them as a threat, the group said Wednesday.
Another 40 states and "three other areas" could become mine-free "if adequate resources are available," the report said, adding that international funding for mine clearance decreased by $US51 million to $US446 million ($A55.18 million to $A482.55 million) in 2013.
More than one million stockpiled anti-personnel mines were destroyed last year.
The only recorded deployment of landmines between September 2013 and October 2014 was by government forces in Syria, where their casualty rate tripled in 2013, and in Myanmar, the report said.
Share
