A Wednesday report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines-Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC) has found that global cluster munition casualties increased by 92 percent in 2019 when compared to annual casualties in 2018. The increase has been primarily linked to the use of cluster munitions in the war in Syria, with 219 casualties occurring in Syria in 2019 alone. Nearly all of the 232 casualties worldwide in 2019 were civilians.

Cluster munitions, or “cluster bombs,” are a type of explosive weapon that release smaller submunitions or bomblets over a wide area. Following release, a number of these submunitions fail to explode on impact, becoming akin to landmines that can indiscriminately injure or kill civilians years after a conflict.

The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), comprising more than 100 nations worldwide, prohibits the use, stockpiling and production of cluster weapons, citing the indiscriminate and “inhumane” injuries often inflicted on civilians. Since 2010, 99 percent of all reported cluster munitions worldwide have been destroyed in accordance with the protocols of the CCM. However, non-signatories to the CCM include the US, Russia and Syria.

The ICBL-CMC report further emphasizes the toll that cluster munitions have taken on Syria, which has been responsible for 81 percent of all cluster munition casualties worldwide since the beginnings of the civil war in 2012. Such totals have made Syria the only country to have experienced continuous use of cluster munitions during that time.

The use of such weapons in Syria has been documented during military operations such as the 2017 Siege of Aleppo, where evidence suggests that Russian-made cluster munitions were used by both Syrian and allied Russian forces. While there are transparency and accountability measures for signatories of the CCM, no such enforcement for compliance currently exists for non-signatory states.