Landmine Casualties Hit 4-Year High as States Exit Ban Treaty

Members of Syria's Ministry of Defense clear landmines south of Idlib. (AP)

08:41-1 December 2025 AD ـ 10 Jumada Al-Alkhirah 1447 AH

Landmine Casualties Hit 4-Year High as States Exit Ban Treaty

Members of Syria's Ministry of Defense clear landmines south of Idlib. (AP)

Deaths and injuries from landmines and unexploded ordnance hit a four-year high in 2024, driven by conflicts in Syria and Myanmar as well as European countries moving to withdraw from the treaty banning their use, a new report showed on Monday.

Over 6,000 incidents were recorded last year, including 1,945 deaths and 4,325 injuries - the highest annual total since 2020, according to the Landmine Monitor 2025 report. Nearly 90% were civilians, with almost half women and children.

The surge was driven mainly by mines exploding in conflict zones in Syria and Myanmar - both countries which are outside the treaty. In Syria, returning residents face growing risks from unexploded ordnance following the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad, the report said.

Myanmar recorded the highest number with over 2,000 incidents due to increased use by both the army and non-state armed groups, the report said.

The treaty, which came into effect in 1999, binds 166 states, 85% of the world, prohibiting the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines. It also requires parties to clear contaminated areas and assist victims.

Several European nations are seeking withdrawal at a time when global funding cuts are hampering clearance efforts.

Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are in the process of legally exiting the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines in the face of what they say are growing military threats from Russia - risking the treaty's "dangerous erosion", the report stated.

Ukraine announced its withdrawal from the Convention on June 29. Military analysts said that doing so could help slow the Russian advances Kyiv is struggling to contain over three years after Moscow's full-scale invasion.

Activists say there should be a global ban on a weapon that blights huge swathes of territory and maims and kills civilians long after conflicts have abated.

The report also documented signs of new Ukrainian mine use, plus Thailand's accusations that Cambodian forces deployed anti-personnel mines in a July disputed border clash, which Cambodia denies. Russia and Myanmar, non-signatories, used landmines extensively, the report said.

Donor funding cuts, including from the US, resulted in reduced survivor support and termination of several humanitarian mine action programs compared with prior years, according to the report.

States party to the Mine Ban Treaty meet in Geneva this week.

Philippines Is Not Concerned Iran War Will Distract US from Region, Defense Secretary Says

Troops from New Zealand, the Philippines, US, and Australia pose for a photo with their national flags after participating in counter-landing live fire exercises during Balikatan, the annual joint military exercises between the US and the Philippines, at Long Point Beach, Brgy. Aporawan, Aborlan, Palawan, Philippines, April 27, 2026. (Reuters)

09:09-28 April 2026 AD ـ 11 Thul-Qi’dah 1447 AH

Philippines Is Not Concerned Iran War Will Distract US from Region, Defense Secretary Says

The Philippines is not worried about any reduction in US deterrence capabilities in the Indo-Pacific due to the Middle East war, though China would likely try to seize on any perceived opening, the Defense Secretary said ‌on Tuesday.

China's recent ‌actions in the ‌South ⁠China Sea and ⁠the Taiwan Strait were "not surprising", Gilberto Teodoro told Reuters in an interview, saying Beijing looked to take advantage when it thought rival powers were preoccupied ⁠elsewhere.

"It is not surprising ‌that ‌any opportunity they see, perceived opportunity, or ‌with a perceived weakness ‌or a perceived opening, they will take advantage," Teodoro said.

Teodoro said he had full confidence in the ‌Mutual Defense Treaty, the long-standing security pact between Manila ⁠and Washington, ⁠and was not worried by concerns that the Iran war could weaken US strategic bandwidth in Asia.

"I'm not concerned at all about reduced deterrence," he said, pointing to joint military exercises currently underway with the US as a sign of Washington's commitment.

World

Ukrainian Strikes Kill 3 in Russian Border Region

A crater is seen at the site of the Russian strike on a residential area in Odesa, Ukraine, 27 April 2026. (EPA)

08:30-28 April 2026 AD ـ 11 Thul-Qi’dah 1447 AH

Ukrainian Strikes Kill 3 in Russian Border Region

A crater is seen at the site of the Russian strike on a residential area in Odesa, Ukraine, 27 April 2026. (EPA)

A Ukrainian drone attack Tuesday killed three people in the Russian border region of Belgorod, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

"Three civilians were killed following drone attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces," he wrote on Telegram, adding that three others were wounded.

The drones targeted a car, killing a man and a vehicle in another area where a man and a woman died, he said.

Since the start of its offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has been regularly bombing Ukraine, especially key infrastructure sites.

In response, Kyiv strikes targets in Russia, insisting it is aiming at military sites as well as energy facilities in order to reduce Moscow's ability to finance its war effort.

A fire broke out on Tuesday at an oil refinery in Tuapse, in southern Russia, after debris from a Ukrainian drone that had targeted the facility fell on it, according to local authorities.

World

Train Collision Kills 14, Injures Dozens Near Jakarta

A drone view shows ambulances standing by at the station following a deadly collision between a commuter line train and a long-distance train, in Bekasi, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, April 28, 2026. (Reuters)

08:00-28 April 2026 AD ـ 11 Thul-Qi’dah 1447 AH

Train Collision Kills 14, Injures Dozens Near Jakarta

Indonesia's president ordered an investigation Tuesday after a long-distance train smashed into a stationary commuter train overnight, killing 14 people and injuring dozens.

Officials ended a nearly 12-hour rescue effort near Bekasi Timur station, east of the capital Jakarta, which saw crews prying open mangled carriages following the Monday night collision.

"And this morning... it is all finished," Mohammad Syafii, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) told a news conference Tuesday. "I am certain there are no more victims to be found."

One survivor described the terror of being trapped inside a crushed carriage.

"I thought I was going to die," Sausan Sarifah, 29, said from her bed at the RSUD Bekasi hospital where she was admitted with a broken arm and a deep cut to one thigh.

She was on her way home from work on Monday night, she said, when her train stopped at the Bekasi Timur station some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Jakarta.

"It all happened so fast, in a split second," Sausan recounted.

"There were two announcements from the commuter train. Everyone was ready to get off, and then suddenly there was the sound of the locomotive, really loud," she said.

"There was no time to get out, and everyone ended up piled up inside the train, crushed on top of one another. I don't know how the person underneath me is doing."

She said she had feared suffocating to death in the human pile-up, and worried that some pinned underneath didn't make it.

"Thank God I was on top, so I could be evacuated quickly," said Sausan.

State-owned rail operator KAI said on Tuesday morning that the death toll had risen to 14. Another 84 people required medical treatment, it said, without specifying how many remained hospitalized.

According to Franoto Wibowo, a KAI spokesman, a taxi appears to have clipped the commuter train on a level crossing, causing it to come to a standstill on the tracks, where it was hit.

At the station, chaotic scenes unfolded in the aftermath of the crash, with rescue workers shouting for oxygen tanks as ambulances stood by in a snaking queue, lights flashing.

An AFP reporter at the scene witnessed people being carried out of the wreckage on gurneys and loaded into waiting ambulances as hundreds of bystanders looked on, some seemingly in shock.

The military, fire brigade, the national search and rescue agency, and the Red Cross aided in the massive evacuation effort that followed.

President Prabowo Subianto on Tuesday visited hospital patients in Bekasi, offered his condolences to relatives of the deceased, and said he had ordered an "immediate investigation."

He also ordered the construction of an overpass in Bekasi.

"In general, we do see that many railway crossings are not guarded," the president said.

"I have ordered that we immediately repair all these crossings, either by guard posts or by flyovers."

- Rescue efforts -

Jakarta police chief Asep Edi Suheri said the long-distance train had crashed into the last, women-only, carriage of the commuter train.

All the victims were in the commuter train, and all 240-odd passengers on the other train had been evacuated safely, according to Anne Purba, another KAI spokeswoman.

The agency said it would cover all medical expenses for the injured and funeral costs for the deceased.

The collision had caused "significant damage to several train carriages", the Jakarta search and rescue agency said in a statement.

Several people were trapped in the carriages "due to the force of the impact," it added.

The rescue agency would not say Tuesday whether all had been freed.

Eva Chairista, 39, told AFP she had rushed to the RSUD hospital after hearing that her sister-in-law, who she named only as 27-year-old Fira, had been injured in the crash.

She arrived to a frenetic scene of medical triage.

"The doctor told us to be patient, there are many whose condition is worse than my sister-in-law's," she said.

Transport accidents are not uncommon in Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation where buses, trains and even planes are often old and poorly maintained.

The previous major train crash in the Southeast Asian country killed four crew members and injured about two dozen people elsewhere in West Java province in January 2024.

Sixteen people were killed when a commuter train crashed into a minibus on a level crossing in Jakarta in 2015.

Landmine Casualties Hit 4-Year High as States Exit Ban Treaty