The Kachin and Shan states have the highest number of landmine fatalities in Myanmar within 2017-2018, the Shan State Minister of Bamar Affairs Dr Aung Than Maung said.
He said this at the coordination ceremony on raising landmine awareness held at the Myanmar Medical Council office on June 25.
Dr Aung Than Maung said 604 people have been injured and 95 people have been killed by landmines in Myanmar from 2014 to April 2018 and 3,745 people have been killed or injured by landmines from 1999 to 2014.
This statistics is obtained from the Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) and some casualties have not been recorded, he continued.
Among 14 states and regions, the Kachin, Kayah, Karen (Kayin), Mon, Chin, Rakhine, and Shan states and Tanintharyi Region, eastern Bago Region suffer from landmines and the Shan and Kachin states have the most fatalities.
The MRCS is planning to provide landmine awareness training and distribute pamphlets and posters in five townships under Loilen and Langhko districts in the southern Shan State within this year.
The MRCS has been cooperating with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the National Level Mine Risk Working Group, and the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief, and Resettlement in running landmine awareness campaign since 2015.
Myanmar ranks third on the list of highest landmine fatalities in the world and it ranks in the fourth place on the list of people disabled by landmines in Southeast Asia.
