BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 6. A total of 3,336 citizens of Azerbaijan were killed as a result of explosion of mines and unexploded ordnances in the country since 1991, Trend reports via the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s Senior Assistant on Special Assignments, Junior Adviser of Justice Ilgar Safarov.
Safarov made the remark during a joint briefing of the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan on crimes committed by the armed forces of Armenia and illegal Armenian armed groups against Azerbaijan to date.
According to him, Armenia continues mine terror against Azerbaijani military and civilians.
"In total, 357 children and 38 women were injured and killed as a result of explosions of cluster munitions since 1991 so far. From November 2020 to October 6, 2022, as a result of mine explosions, 44 people died, and 213 received injuries of varying severity. The total number of deaths and injuries during this period amounted to 257 people, including nine children, and one woman. The victims of mine explosions also include three media representatives,” the official said.
“From November 2020, 147 people became victims of mine incidents which occurred outside the territory of the former line of contact between [Azerbaijani and Armenian] troops," Safarov noted.
He also noted that during mine clearance operations from November 10, 2020 to October 4, 2022, 549.2 million square meters (54,924 hectares) of the liberated territories of Azerbaijan were cleared of mines and unexploded ordnances, 25,781 anti-personnel and 12,561 anti-tank mines, and 33,736 unexploded ordnances were detected.
Besides, according to the official, in Azerbaijan’s large cities and other settlements (on the territory of 12,500 hectares) subjected to artillery shelling by Armenia, 722 cluster and 67 phosphorus munitions prohibited by international law were found and neutralized.
Totally, 72,078 mines and other explosive devices have been detected and neutralized in the liberated territories so far. Although Armenia initially denied the existence of minefield records, it later provided some of them to Azerbaijan.
From June through December 2021, 919 such records were submitted by Armenia. It was found that the accuracy of these forms is at a very low level (about 25 percent). Information on mine maps of some areas along the former line of contact (71 km) wasn’t provided at all.