More people are being killed or maimed by antipersonnel landmines in Myanmar than in any other country in the world. There were as many as 2,029 casualties in the country in 2025, almost double the number reported the previous year.
Myanmar’s military has been using antipersonnel landmines for several decades. A new trend since the military coup of February 2021 is that such mines are being used by non-state armed groups of the resistance as well, Landmine Monitor has noted.
The impact of antipersonnel landmines and unexploded ordnance has been particularly severe on Myanmar’s children. According to UNICEF, over 20 percent of the 1,052 verified civilian casualties from such incidents in 2023 were children. This was a significant rise from 2022, when just 390 incidents were recorded.
Between January 29 and March 4, The Diplomat interviewed 16 survivors of landmines in Myanmar’s Chin State and Rakhine State, who shared the circumstances under which they stepped on antipersonnel landmines, how they survived and how their injuries have changed their lives forever.
The landmines that claimed lives or inflicted injuries were usually planted by the Myanmar military around their bases and outposts to deter advancing resistance groups. But the regime troops also mined jungles, paddy fields, and villages as they withdrew from areas to avoid being captured or killed.
In 2025, Rakhine State reported the second-highest number of landmine casualties (117) among all states and regions in Myanmar.
