The Ukrainian conflict has recorded the highest confirmed death and injury toll from cluster munitions for the third year running, UN-backed researchers said on Monday.
According to the latest Cluster Munitions Monitor, more than 1,200 people are known to have been killed or maimed in Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The true figure is likely much higher, but it could be years before an accurate number is known, said Loren Persi, team lead for the Cluster Munition Monitor report.
Citing conflict in Syria and Yemen where it was clear that there were high numbers of casualties, "this only came out [years] later", he told journalists in Geneva.
Lao legacy
Equally, in Lao People's Democratic Republic, which Mr. Persi described as the most contaminated country by cluster munitions, "it took decades" before surveys confirmed estimates that many thousands of people had been killed or injured by strikes from cluster munitions, which are generally understood to be a container from which submunitions are scattered.
The civil society publication, backed by UN disarmament research agency UNIDIR , notes Israeli allegations that cluster munitions were used in a ballistic missile attack by Iran in June 2025, and of reported but unverified use of the weapons in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
The report's other findings note that the de facto forces in Myanmar have used "domestically produced", air-delivered cluster bombs since around 2022, amid the ongoing civil war.
"Schools have been among the targets in rebel-held areas," said the Monitor research specialist Michael Hart, highlighting their use in Chin state, Rakhine state, the Saigon region and Kachin state, among others.
Mistaken for toys
Submunitions - or bomblets, as they are also known - cause casualties and damage through blast impact, their incendiary effect and fragmentation. According to UNIDIR, a single attack can involve thousands of individual explosive units which are usually spread over hundreds of square metres.
"These munitions can be air-delivered or surface-launched, and can be used against armour, materiel and personnel," UNIDIR explained, although it is "very clear…that civilians continue to bear the brunt" of suffering from the cluster emission remnants, Mr. Persi insisted.
As in previous years, children accounted for a high proportion (42 per cent) of casualties from the weapons in 2024, "which they often find interesting, think are toys or come across in play or on the way to school or when working in fields", Mr. Persi continued.
Funding cuts impact
Funding cuts for humanitarian work have had a negative impact on countries impacted by the explosive weapons.
These include Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon, which had "made good progress" in clearing contaminated land, but who now "really struggle with funding…to get the clearance done, hence they slow down", said Katrin Atkins, senior researcher at Cluster Munitions Monitor.
"Whole programmes" supported by USAID in the past including one in Lau have been discontinued, Mr. Persi noted.
"For decades, [the programme] was essential in providing both first aid in remote areas where there are cluster mine victims, which was clearly there to address the legacy of the bombings of the 60s and 70s," he explained. "But also, the entire rehabilitation programme, including prosthetics… that was cut and as far as we know, not reestablished in any way."
In the last 15 years since the Convention on Cluster Munitions , just 10 countries have used the weapons and "all of those are States not party to the international accord", the Cluster Munition Monitor states.
Manufacturing stop
A total of 18 countries have now ceased production of cluster munitions. All former producers are now States Parties to the Convention, aside from Argentina.
The report notes that 17 countries still produce cluster munitions or reserve the right to do so and none is a State Party to the Convention. They are: Brazil, China, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Türkiye and the United States.
