UN chief slams landmine threat days after US decision to supply Ukraine

The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General on Monday slammed the "renewed threat" of anti-personnel landmines, days after the United States announced it would supply the weapons to Ukrainian forces fighting Russia's invasion.

In remarks sent to a conference in Cambodia reviewing progress on the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, UN chief Antonio Guterres praised efforts to clear and destroy landmines worldwide.

"But the threat remains. This includes the renewed use of anti-personnel mines by some of the Parties to the Convention, as well as some Parties falling behind in their commitments to destroy these weapons," he said in the statement.

He called on the 164 signatories—including Ukraine, but not Russia or the United States—to "meet their obligations and ensure compliance with the Convention."

Guterres' remarks were delivered by UN Under-Secretary-General Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana.

AFP contacted her office and a spokesman for Guterres to ask if the remarks were specifically directed at Ukraine.

The Ukrainian delegation at the conference did not respond to AFP questions about the U.S. landmine supplies.

Washington's announcement last week that it would send anti-personnel landmines to Kyiv was immediately criticized by human rights campaigners.

The outgoing U.S. administration aims to give Ukraine an upper hand before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the mines "very important" to halting Russian attacks.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says the war with Russia must end by "diplomatic means" AFP

The conference is being held in Cambodia, one of the most heavily bombed and mined countries in the world, after three decades of civil war beginning in the 1960s.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet told the conference his country still needs to clear over 1,600 square kilometers (618 square miles) of contaminated land that is affecting the lives of more than one million people.

Around 20,000 people have been killed in Cambodia by landmines and unexploded ordnance since 1979, and twice as many have been injured.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said on Wednesday that at least 5,757 people were casualties of landmines and explosive remnants of war across the world last year, 1,983 of whom were killed.

Civilians made up 84 percent of all recorded casualties, the ICBL said.