UN: Myanmar landmine, unexploded ordnance casualties nearly triple

Keeping check: A file photo showing members of the anti-junta Karenni Nationalities Defence Force searching for landmines planted by the Myanmar military during demining operations near Pekon township. — AFP

LANDMINES and unexploded munitions killed or wounded almost three people every day in Myanmar last year, the UN said, an almost threefold increase from the previous year as the civil conflict rages.

The military’s ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021 sparked renewed fighting with ethnic rebel groups as well as with pro-democracy “People’s Defence Forces” in areas previously untouched by decades of conflict in Myanmar.