Despite international outcry, cluster munitions continued to be used in Syrian and Yemeni conflicts, a Cluster Munition Monitor report said Thursday.
“Cluster munition attacks in Syria have increased since Russia began its joint military operation with Syrian government forces at the end of September 2015; now there are almost daily reports of new cluster munition attacks,” according to the report.
The Monitor said between April 2015 and March 2016, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of states used cluster munitions in at least 19 attacks in Yemen.
None of these countries have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Civilians suffer most from cluster munition harm and accounted for 97% of cluster munition casualties in 2015, where such status could be determined.
Most new cluster munition casualties in 2015 were recorded in Syria (248) and Yemen (104), primarily occurring during cluster munition strikes.
New cluster munition casualties were also recorded in six other countries in 2015, most from unexploded submunitions left from attacks that took place many years earlier.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted on 30 May 2008, comprehensively prohibits cluster munitions, requires destruction of stockpiles within eight years, clearance of areas contaminated by cluster munition remnants within 10 years, and the provision of assistance for victims of the weapon.
Cluster munitions have been banned because of their widespread indiscriminate effect at the time of use, and the longlasting danger they pose to civilians once the conflict has ceased.
Cluster munitions can be fired by artillery and rockets or dropped by aircraft, and open in the air to release multiple smaller bomblets or submunitions over an area the size of a football field. Submunitions often fail to explode on initial impact, leaving dangerous remnants that pose the same danger as landmines until cleared and destroyed.
