Landmine Facts 

• The International Campaign to Ban Landmines estimates that around 4,000-5,000 people were maimed or killed by landmines last year alone, and that millions more suffer from the agricultural, economic, and psychological impact of the weapon.
• The International Campaign to Ban Landmines estimates that there are tens of millions of landmines in the ground in 78 countries.
• UNICEF estimates that 30-40 percent of mine victims are children under 15 years old.
• The United States has 10.4 million APLs stockpiled, the third largest mine arsenal in the world.
• Landmines cost as little as $3 to produce and as much as $1,000 per mine to clear.
• Landmines have injured and killed thousands of U.S. and allied troops in every U.S.-fought conflict since World War II, including recently in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• The U.S. State Department estimates that fewer than one in four landmine amputees is fitted with a proper prosthesis.
• From 1969 to 1992, the United States exported 4.4 million antipersonnel mines, mostly to Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Somalia, and Vietnam.
• U.S.-made or supplied APLs have been found in 32 countries, including Afghanistan.
• Landmines are indiscriminate killers that target civilians long after a conflict has ended. Most kinds of landmines last forever. Mines laid during WWII are still killing and maiming civilians.
• At the beginning of the 20th century, nearly 80 per cent of landmine victims were military personnel. Today, 90 per cent of landmine victims are civilians.
• Landmines set in motion a series of events that leads to environmental damage in the forms of soil degradation, deforestation, pollution of water resources with heavy metals and altering entire species’ populations through degrading habitats and altering food chains.