Countries Most Contaminated by Landmines (2025)

Ask which countries are most contaminated by landmines and the answer changes with the yardstick. Counting mines puts Egypt first, on government claims that Landmine Monitor calls unreliable. Counting recorded area puts Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Cambodia on top. Counting casualties puts Myanmar first, with 2,029 recorded in 2024. Ukraine, meanwhile, reports a suspected hazard area larger than most countries. This ranking uses the Landmine Monitor 2025 data and says plainly where the numbers are solid and where they are not.

Key takeaways

• Among states that report figures, Iraq has the largest recorded antipersonnel mine contamination (1,312.27 km², end of 2024), followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina (about 804 km²) and Cambodia (424.24 km², March 2025).
• Landmines and explosive remnants of war caused at least 6,279 recorded casualties in 2024, the highest annual total since 2020. About 90 percent of casualties with known status were civilians.
• Myanmar recorded 2,029 casualties in 2024, the most of any country for the second year running, and is not a party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
• Ukraine's national estimate of suspected explosive hazard is about 139,000 km². That figure covers all explosive ordnance, not only mines, and cannot be compared with the antipersonnel mine areas of other countries.
• Egypt's widely repeated figure of 22 to 23 million mines is a government claim. Landmine Monitor describes Egypt's contamination as unknown and past estimates as wholly unreliable.
• Mine action funding totaled US$1.07 billion in 2024, and international funding fell 5 percent while funding for victim assistance fell 23 percent.

Why there is no single ranking of mined countries

A ranking sounds simple until you ask what is being counted. There are four common measures, and each tells a different story.

Measure	What it captures	Main weakness	Example from the data
Number of mines	The raw scale of what was laid	Almost never verified; often mixes mines with other ordnance	Egypt's claimed 22 million
Contaminated area (km²)	How much land cannot be used safely	Depends on survey quality; falls when suspected areas are canceled	Iraq's 1,312.27 km²
Casualties	Human harm in a given year	Reflects conflict intensity and reporting, not the size of legacy contamination	Myanmar's 2,029 in 2024
Hazard area for all explosive ordnance	Total suspected danger, including shells and bombs	Not comparable with mine-only figures	Ukraine's 139,000 km²

Think of it as ranking libraries. Counting books works only if someone has finished the catalog, and for most mined countries the catalog is incomplete. Area is closer to the size of the building, a better-defined number. Casualties measure how often a visitor has been hurt by something on the shelves. Each statistic is useful, and none is the whole answer.

The most reliable source for all of them is the Landmine Monitor, the annual report of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munition Coalition. It compiles government reports to the Mine Ban Treaty, national mine action centers, and operators on the ground. Where this article gives a figure without another attribution, it comes from Landmine Monitor 2025, and the data year is stated.

How a landmine works and why it outlasts the war

Mines fall into two main groups. Antipersonnel (AP) mines are designed to harm people, and antivehicle (AV) mines are designed to damage vehicles. According to the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD), an AP mine can be set off by about 2 kilograms of pull on a tripwire or about 5 kilograms of pressure, while AV mines generally need more than 100 kilograms (FSD, What is a landmine). That difference is why a mine laid for tanks can be harmless to a walking adult but lethal to a vehicle.

The same source describes several types that appear in current conflicts.

• Blast mines such as the PMN series are pressure-activated and designed to injure the lower limbs.
• Bounding mines such as the OZM 72 launch a fragmentation charge to groin height, with a lethal radius of 25 meters, and are often triggered by tripwire.
• Scatterable mines such as the PFM-1 are dispersed in large numbers from aircraft, helicopters, or rockets and detonate later when touched.

Mines persist because they have no expiry date. FSD notes that self-destruct mechanisms do not always work, that mines can stay active for decades, and that some may become more sensitive as they degrade. AV mines may be buried near AP mines, a practice called mine stacking. Materials vary from metal to plastic to wood and glass, and the last two are hard to detect. Mines from World War II are still found in Europe.

Not all mines are factory products. Victim-activated improvised mines caused 2,077 casualties in 2024, more than any other type, according to Landmine Monitor, and at least 25 States Parties to the treaty have contamination from improvised mines. Manufactured antipersonnel mines caused 1,540 casualties in 2024, the highest figure since 2011.

Top 10 countries by recorded antipersonnel mine contamination

The table below ranks the countries and areas for which Landmine Monitor 2025 reports a contamination figure of 49 km² or more. It uses area, which is the most comparable measure available, and gives the data date for each row. Two rows carry an asterisk because the figure includes other mine types.

Rank	Country or area	Recorded contamination (km²)	Data as of	Note
1	Iraq	1,312.27	End of 2024	Plus 317.91 km² from improvised mines
2	Bosnia and Herzegovina	About 804	End of 2024, updated May 2025	Originally reported as 822.6 km²
3	Cambodia	424.24	March 2025	New areas keep being found
4	Türkiye	219.9	2024
5	Western Sahara*	210	End of 2024	Total contamination, mainly antivehicle mines
6	Ethiopia	125.18	May 2025	Down from 726.07 km² in 2024
7	Afghanistan	110.91	End of 2024
8	Chad*	77.62	End of 2024	Mixed antipersonnel, antivehicle, and other remnants
9	Angola	57.07	End of 2024	965 areas in 17 provinces
10	Croatia	49.34	End of 2024	Also reported among the largest clearance totals in 2024

Source: Landmine Monitor 2025. Eritrea (33.43 km²) is excluded because its figure was last reported in 2014.

Reading the table carefully

Three details show why these numbers should be read as estimates, not measurements.

First, Ethiopia's figure fell from 726.07 km² to 125.18 km² in a year. That is not a clearance triumph. When surveyors re-examine suspected hazardous areas and find them mine-free, the area is canceled on paper. The same mechanism works in reverse when new areas are discovered, as in Cambodia, where operators reported 466 newly suspected hazardous areas covering 75.81 km² in 2024 after local people expanded their land use into previously inaccessible ground.

Second, Bosnia and Herzegovina's figure was revised from 822.6 km² to about 804 km² within months, which shows how much a single reported number can move.

Third, the table excludes several heavily affected places because their data do not allow a like-for-like entry. The next section explains why.

The countries that do not fit the table

Country	Why it is not in the ranking	What the data say
Ukraine	Official AP mine area is small; suspected hazard area covers all ordnance	35.22 km² AP mine contamination at end of 2023; about 139,000 km² suspected hazard (national estimate)
Egypt	No reliable survey	AP mine contamination described as unknown; government claims of 22 million mines
Syria	No country-wide survey	A country-wide survey is still pending; 1,015 casualties in 2024
Myanmar	No contamination figure in the sources used here	2,029 casualties in 2024; armed forces increased use in 2024 and 2025

Egypt: why 22 million mines is the most repeated number and the least reliable

Egypt appears at the top of many lists, usually with a figure of 22 or 23 million mines. The origin of that number is a series of Egyptian government statements, and the Mine Action Review's Egypt profile traces how it has behaved over time (Mine Action Review, Clearing the Mines 2024: Egypt).

Year	Claim or event	Figure
2009	Government claim	17 million mines in the Western Desert and 5.5 million in Sinai and the Eastern Desert
2010	Executive Secretariat report to donors	2.9 million "mines" destroyed while clearing 38 km²; more than 16 million left over about 248 km²
2013	Army handover	About 105 km² of the Western Desert reportedly cleared
2020	Project report	2,182 km² released from a reported 5,100 km² of mined area on the North West Coast
2021	Statement to the UN General Assembly	Claimed 22 million AP mines, which the Monitor says was incorrect
2022	Army spokesperson	"More than 25 million mines, explosive objects and ammunition" destroyed over the past years

Dividing the 2010 figure of 16 million items by 248 km² gives about 65,000 per square kilometer, a density nobody has been able to verify. The 2022 statement bundles mines with other explosive objects and ammunition, and gave no detail on timeframe or area. The UN Mine Action Team warned as early as 2009 that data needed careful analysis to avoid reporting areas that had already been cleared. The Mine Action Review's conclusion is blunt: the precise extent of antipersonnel mine contamination in Egypt remains unknown, and past estimates have been wholly unreliable.

What is clear is where the contamination lies. Most of it is in the Western Desert, around the World War II battlefields between the Qattara Depression and El Alamein on the Mediterranean coast, near Marsa Matrouh, and at Sallum near the Libyan border. Sinai and the Eastern Desert have mines from wars with Israel between 1956 and 1973. The British minefield maps handed over in 2016 were, according to the head of Egypt's military engineering department, sketch maps, and most mines were buried randomly. NATO reported in 2014 that mines and unexploded ordnance in the Egyptian desert can lie at depths of more than 1.5 meters.

Egypt has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty and repeated its reservations at the UN General Assembly in November 2023. The Monitor also reports that Islamic State militants harvested explosives from World War II mines in Egypt and used them to make improvised devices, and recorded new use of improvised antipersonnel mines in Sinai between 2020 and 2022. Clearance is carried out by the Corps of Military Engineers with no international operators, and Egypt has not reported in detail on land release in recent years. A deadly legacy and an opaque program together explain why the headline number cannot be trusted.

Ukraine: the largest hazard area, measured three ways

Ukraine is the clearest example of the problem of yardsticks, because three very different numbers describe the same situation.

Measure	Figure	Source and date
Antipersonnel mine contamination reported under the treaty	35.22 km² (23.34 km² confirmed, 11.88 km² suspected)	Landmine Monitor 2025, end of 2023
Suspected explosive-ordnance hazard area	More than 139,000 km², roughly 25% of territory	UNMAS, national estimate as of mid-2025
Recorded casualties in 2024	293 (Monitor); 283 recorded by the UN human rights office, 74 killed and 209 injured	Landmine Monitor 2025

The 139,000 km² estimate is also reported as 23 percent of Ukraine's territory as of March 2025 (Kyiv Independent), so the percentage differs by source even though the area is the same. It is a suspected figure covering all explosive ordnance, including shells and bombs, and the Monitor calls Ukraine's overall extent a rough estimate that cannot be reliably verified while the conflict continues. It also notes that a figure in Ukraine's April 2025 workplan, 105,877 km² across 207 suspected hazardous areas, is implausibly large and may reflect a unit or transcription error.

What the war added

Landmine Monitor reports that Russia has used antipersonnel mines extensively in Ukraine since February 2022, using at least 13 mine types. The United States announced antipersonnel mine transfers to Ukraine on November 24 and December 2, 2024. On July 18, 2025, Ukraine notified the United Nations that it would "suspend the operation" of the Mine Ban Treaty. The treaty does not provide for suspension, and the Monitor says so.

The practical consequences fall on farmland and people. According to UNMAS, about 67 percent of suspected hazardous areas are agricultural land, explosive hazards cost Ukraine an estimated US$11.2 billion a year, and agricultural exports are down US$4.3 billion a year. Our ranking of top wheat-producing countries shows why that matters for global food supply, and our article on countries facing the worst hunger explains how supply shocks reach the people least able to absorb them. UNMAS also reports more than 3.7 million people internally displaced and 5.4 million living in directly exposed war zones. For wider displacement figures, see our ranking of countries hosting the most refugees.

How long clearance could take

Official plans are measured in years, not decades. Ukraine's third treaty extension sets a clearance deadline of December 1, 2033 for antipersonnel mines. In 2024 it released 28.37 km² of antipersonnel mine-contaminated land, and its updated workplan projects 204.7 km² released in 2025 and 233.3 km² between 2026 and 2032. Those targets apply to treaty-defined mine contamination, not the 139,000 km² hazard estimate.

The HALO Trust, the world's largest demining organization, has been more cautious about the larger problem. Its chief executive told the Kyiv Independent that, unless clearance is done quickly, it "is going to take hundreds of years," but that clearing Ukrainian-controlled territory within 10 years is possible if demining is mechanized with the energy applied to drones. HALO says it has grown from 400 to about 1,500 staff in Ukraine and, since February 24, 2022, has cleared nearly 7.9 million square meters (about 7.9 km²) and located more than 41,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance. It also notes that the front line is about 1,000 kilometers long, compared with the 178-kilometer Korean demilitarized zone minefield, and that mines on Russian-occupied land cannot be cleared unless Russia allows it.

The cost estimate cited by UNMAS from the Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment by the World Bank, UN, and EU is US$34.6 billion over 10 years for full demining. Ukraine was the top recipient of international mine action funding in 2024, at US$252.4 million. For a sense of the armored forces fielded in conventional wars of this kind, see our ranking of countries with the most tanks.

Myanmar: the highest casualty count

Myanmar recorded 2,029 casualties from mines and explosive remnants in 2024, the most of any country for the second year running, according to Landmine Monitor. It is not a party to the Mine Ban Treaty. The Monitor reports that Myanmar's armed forces increased their use of antipersonnel mines in 2024 and 2025, and lists Myanmar among the states not party that appear to be actively producing them, with India, Russia, and South Korea.

Rank by 2024 casualties	Country	Casualties recorded
1	Myanmar	2,029
2	Syria	1,015
3	Afghanistan	624
4	Ukraine	293

Source: Landmine Monitor 2025. The Monitor also lists Burkina Faso, Iraq, Mali, Nigeria, and Yemen in the 101 to 500 casualty band.

This is the reason casualties and contamination rankings diverge. Myanmar tops the casualty table because mines are being used now, in active fighting, not because it holds the largest legacy minefields. Iraq tops the contamination table because of decades of earlier conflicts, while its annual casualty total is lower.

Cambodia and the Thai border

Cambodia is both a success story and an unfinished job. Landmine Monitor records 424.24 km² of antipersonnel mine contamination as of March 2025. Cambodian authorities reported 49 casualties from mines and explosive remnants in 2024, up from 32 in 2023, and cumulative totals since 1979 of 19,834 killed and 45,252 injured or amputated, according to reporting from the Counter-IED Report. It submitted a third deadline extension request in 2025, asking for an additional five years, to December 31, 2030.

The border with Thailand complicates both clearance and diplomacy. Thailand's own treaty deadline is December 31, 2026, and the Monitor lists it as behind target. It recorded 17.04 km² of contamination at the end of 2024, reduced to 13.2 km² by June 2025. In 2025 Thai officials accused Cambodia of laying new mines, an allegation Cambodia refuted. Cambodia is a State Party to the treaty, and the Monitor reports the accusation without resolving it.

Iraq, Bosnia, Türkiye, Angola, and Afghanistan: legacy contamination

Iraq's 1,312.27 km² is the largest figure in the table, with another 317.91 km² from improvised mines. Bosnia and Herzegovina's roughly 804 km² is a legacy of the war of 1992 to 1995, and the country is among the states the Monitor classes as massively contaminated, meaning more than 100 km². Türkiye's 219.9 km² is the fourth-largest figure in the table, and it is among the 13 States Parties that requested clearance deadline extensions in 2025.

Angola's contamination is a legacy of a civil war that ran from 1975 to 2002. Its third Article 5 extension request, submitted in March 2025, asks for five more years, to December 31, 2030, and reports 965 areas in 17 provinces covering 57.07 km² at the end of 2024.

Afghanistan is a mix of legacy and current danger. It recorded 624 casualties in 2024, the third-highest in the world.

What clearing a minefield involves

Clearance is slower and more bureaucratic than the popular image suggests, and most of the work is not digging up mines. Landmine Monitor reports that States Parties released 1,114.82 km² of land in 2024 and destroyed at least 105,640 antipersonnel mines. Non-technical survey, which means gathering records and interviewing local people to establish where mines are not, accounted for about 80 percent of the land released. Dividing the mines by the area gives about 95 mines per square kilometer released, a reminder that most suspected land turns out to be clear.

On the ground, FSD describes the process: deminers scan the ground with metal detectors and other specialized equipment, investigate suspicious areas, uncover devices by hand, and then an expert chooses the safest disposal method, either removal and neutralization or a controlled explosion in place. Since 1997 FSD alone has rendered safe 214,000 antipersonnel mines and 5,619 antivehicle mines and cleared more than 470 km² of land. HALO says artificial intelligence combined with imagery is key to faster survey and that radar and magnetic detection tools show promise, though many produce false alarms. For the technology behind this, see our explainers on how LiDAR works and how drones work, and our ranking of countries with the most advanced drone programs.

The countries leading clearance in 2024, by reported total, were Cambodia, Croatia, and Yemen. Nine States Parties released no land or did not report. Argentina, Chad, Niger, and Sudan reported no release, and five others did not report or gave insufficient information.

Who pays: mine action funding

Funding item, 2024	Amount
Global mine action funding	US$1.07 billion
Contributed by affected states themselves	US$306.3 million (over 30%)
International funding	US$761 million, down 5% from 2023
Share of international funding going to clearance	75% (US$571.3 million)
Victim assistance	US$36.4 million, down 23%
Top recipient	Ukraine, US$252.4 million

Source: Landmine Monitor 2025. The three largest donors were the United States, Germany, and the European Union.

Two patterns stand out. Money follows the news: Ukraine's top position means that long-running programs elsewhere compete for a flat or shrinking pool. And victim assistance, the part of mine action that supports survivors with prosthetics, rehabilitation, and psychological care, received about 5 percent of the international total and fell fastest. In 2025, 13 States Parties asked for more time to meet their clearance obligations: Angola, Argentina, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Türkiye, and Zimbabwe. Senegal followed on November 3, 2025.

The Mine Ban Treaty: what it covers and who is outside

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines, usually called the Mine Ban Treaty or Ottawa Convention, was concluded at a diplomatic conference in Oslo on September 18, 1997, opened for signature in Ottawa in December 1997, and entered into force on March 1, 1999 (UN Office for Disarmament Affairs). As of Landmine Monitor 2025, 166 states are bound by it and 31 remain outside. The Marshall Islands and Tonga joined in 2025.

The treaty's record is mixed. On the positive side, 94 States Parties have destroyed their stockpiles, eliminating over 55 million mines. On the negative side, Greece and Ukraine still hold stocks and are in violation of the stockpile-destruction article, and 62 States Parties keep mines for training or research. Among states not party, 12 are on the Monitor's production list, with India, Myanmar, Russia, and South Korea appearing to be actively producing. Non-state armed groups used mines in 10 States Parties, as well as in India, Myanmar, and Pakistan.

The year 2025 brought the sharpest setback. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania deposited notices of withdrawal on June 27, 2025, scheduled to take effect on December 27, 2025. Finland did so on July 10, 2025, effective January 10, 2026, and Poland on August 20, 2025, effective February 20, 2026. Ukraine's attempted "suspension" came in the same period. For context on the weapons programs and defense spending in the states outside the treaty, see our rankings of countries that export the most weapons, countries with the biggest defense budgets, and countries with the most nuclear weapons.

The human cost

Landmine Monitor recorded at least 6,279 casualties from mines and explosive remnants of war in 2024: 1,945 killed and 4,325 injured, with survival status unknown for nine. That is the highest annual figure since 2020. Casualties were recorded in 52 countries and areas, 36 of them States Parties.

Civilians made up 90 percent (5,385) of casualties where status was known. Children made up 46 percent (1,701) of civilian casualties where age was recorded. The real figure is likely higher, because the Monitor counts only recorded casualties, and reporting is weakest in the places with active fighting and few hospitals.

A casualty is rarely the end of the harm. Survivors often face amputation, long rehabilitation, and costs that fall on poor households. That is why the 23 percent fall in victim assistance funding matters as much as the headline casualty count.

What people get wrong about landmines

Mines eventually expire. They do not. FSD states that landmines have no expiry dates and that some may become more sensitive as they degrade, which is why mines from World War II are still found.

More mines always means more danger. Danger depends on where mines are relative to people. Egypt's contamination lies mostly in sparsely populated desert, while a few square kilometers near a village can matter more.

Landmines are a Cold War problem. The Monitor documents new use in Ukraine, Myanmar, and elsewhere, and notes that at least 25 States Parties have contamination from improvised mines.

The treaty has failed because major powers stayed out. The treaty has not been universal, but 166 states are bound by it, 94 have destroyed their stockpiles, and over 55 million mines have been eliminated. It has also taken serious hits in 2025.

Metal detectors find everything. FSD notes that some mines are made largely of plastic, glass, or wood, which makes them hard to detect, which is why clearance combines survey, detectors, manual investigation, and, increasingly, imaging and mechanical tools.

Where this data comes from, and its limits

Contamination figures come from government reports to the Mine Ban Treaty and are compiled by the Landmine Monitor. They are only as good as national surveys. Some countries, including Egypt, do not report reliable data. Others have conflict that prevents survey, as in Syria and the occupied parts of Ukraine. Casualty counts reflect only recorded events. Rankings of area also exclude countries whose contamination is mainly from explosive remnants of war other than mines, and they treat a state's reported area as of a particular date, so they can change quickly as surveys are completed.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Which country has the most landmines? A: No one knows, because most governments cannot verify mine counts. Egypt claims about 22 million, but Landmine Monitor says the figure is incorrect and that the extent of its contamination is unknown. By recorded contaminated area, Iraq is first among states that report figures, at 1,312.27 km² of antipersonnel mine contamination at the end of 2024.

Q: Is Ukraine the most heavily mined country? A: It has the largest suspected hazard area, about 139,000 km² by the national estimate, but that figure covers all explosive ordnance. Its reported antipersonnel mine contamination under the treaty was 35.22 km² at the end of 2023. The Monitor calls the overall extent a rough estimate that cannot be verified during the conflict.

Q: How many people are killed or injured by landmines each year? A: Landmine Monitor recorded at least 6,279 casualties in 2024, including 1,945 killed and 4,325 injured. About 90 percent of those whose status was known were civilians, and children were 46 percent of civilian casualties where age was recorded. The true figure is probably higher.

Q: Which countries have not joined the Mine Ban Treaty? A: 31 states remain outside it, according to Landmine Monitor 2025. They include Egypt, Myanmar, Russia, the United States, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, and both Koreas. The Monitor lists India, Myanmar, Russia, and South Korea as appearing to be actively producing antipersonnel mines.

Q: How long does it take to clear a country of mines? A: It depends on the size of the problem, the terrain, the security situation, and funding. Cambodia has been clearing for decades and has asked to extend its deadline to 2030. Ukraine's treaty deadline for antipersonnel mines is December 1, 2033, while the head of HALO says that clearing the broader hazard could take hundreds of years unless demining is accelerated.

Q: How are mines actually cleared? A: Most land is released through survey that shows it to be clear, about 80 percent of the total in 2024. The rest involves scanning with metal detectors and other tools, uncovering suspect items by hand, and neutralizing them or detonating them in place. In 2024 States Parties destroyed at least 105,640 antipersonnel mines while releasing 1,114.82 km² of land.

Q: Why did some countries leave the treaty in 2025? A: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and Poland submitted withdrawal notices in mid-2025. Landmine Monitor reports the dates and notes that Ukraine said it would suspend the treaty, which the treaty does not allow. The reasons the governments gave are not summarized here, and the Monitor's report is the place to read them.

The takeaway

A country's place on a landmine list depends on what the list counts. Count mines, and you rely on numbers that governments themselves cannot verify, as Egypt's shifting claims show. Count area, and you get a more defensible ranking, with Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Cambodia at the top, but one that changes whenever a survey cancels or discovers land. Count casualties, and you learn about the present, where Myanmar, Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine are now the places where mines are hurting people. The common thread is the speed of the damage compared with the speed of repair: a war can lay mines in months, while clearing them takes years of survey, funding, and access. The numbers to watch next are the deadlines countries have asked to extend, the size of the funding pool, and whether the treaty loses more members.

Sources

• Landmine Monitor 2025
• Mine Action Review, Clearing the Mines 2024: Egypt
• UNMAS, Ukraine
• Kyiv Independent, Ukraine is biggest landmine challenge since World War II, says head of HALO
• Swiss Foundation for Mine Action, What is a landmine
• UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention
• Counter-IED Report, Cambodia sees spike in landmine, ERW casualties in 2024

Related Reading

• Countries With the Most Time Zones (2025)
• Most Expensive Countries to Live In (2025)
• Most Urbanised Countries in the World (2025)
• Countries Spending the Most on Healthcare (2025)