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By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Cluster munitions killed or wounded at least 1,063 people in 2025 — most of them in Ukraine — in the third-highest annual toll on record, according to a report released ahead of a conference reviewing a treaty banning the weapons.
The vast majority of the casualties — 87% — were civilians, and around two-fifths were children, the Cluster Munition Coalition’s annual report said on Tuesday.
The treaty was helping affected communities, “yet the rising human toll, continued and new use, production, and transfers by states not party are stark warnings that these gains cannot be taken for granted,” coalition director Tamar Gabelnick said.
The highest annual toll, 1,172, was recorded by the coalition in 2022, the year that Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Cluster munitions, fired from the ground or by aircraft, explode midair, spraying smaller bomblets over a wide area.
Survivors often suffer major injuries from blasts and burns that can result in lifelong medical needs. Unexploded bombs can remain on the battlefield long after a conflict ends.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine has signed up to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, under which 112 states parties have agreed to prohibit the use of the weapons.
Russia has long argued that cluster munitions are lawful weapons and says humanitarian problems arise from their improper use.
Ukraine has also used cluster munitions, the report found. Ukraine’s military says it adheres to the norms of international humanitarian law in using such weaponry, the report added.
Iran, Myanmar, Russia, Thailand and Ukraine, none of them parties to the convention, used cluster munitions during the reporting period, said the report, which has been recording casualties since 2010.
It also found evidence of new production in nine countries, including China, Israel, North Korea, Russia and South Korea.
The Red Cross has called for more states to join the Convention ahead of a conference reviewing the treaty in Vientiane, Laos in mid-September.
“We need a larger group of states and most big military powers to join this convention,” Fahad Ahmed, Legal Adviser at the Red Cross, said.
The Red Cross said funding cuts have forced it to reduce physical rehabilitation support for victims.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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