NDM-UN29 Geneva: Over 100 Million People at Risk from Explosive Ordnance as Mine Action Community Convenes Under “One Humanity” Theme
Technical Summary
The 29th International Meeting of Mine Action National Directors and United Nations Advisers (NDM-UN29) opened at the Centre International de Conférences Genève (CICG) on 22 April 2026, convening approximately 800 mine action specialists from more than 80 countries — including roughly 60 mine-contaminated states — for a three-day session (22–24 April) co-hosted by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) and the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) under the theme “One Humanity”. The meeting follows a Ukraine Mine Action Partner Coordination Workshop held 20–21 April and runs concurrently with a Mine Action Support Group (MASG) meeting in Geneva. The programme comprises 46 sessions and over 120 speakers. Explosive remnants of war (ERW) — encompassing landmines, cluster munition remnants (CMR), improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO) — affect more than 100 million people across 60 or more countries, with civilians accounting for over 90% of recorded victims.
Opening Session and “One Humanity” Theme
The meeting was opened by Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, with a keynote by Ms. Maryam Bukar Hassan, the first UN Global Advocate for Peace. Ms. Kazumi Ogawa, Director of UNMAS, and Ambassador Tobias Privitelli, Director of the GICHD, delivered the host-body opening addresses. Ms. Ogawa framed the 2026 gathering against the 29-year anniversary of Princess Diana’s January 1997 walk through an Angolan minefield, arguing that public consciousness of the civilian mine threat has not scaled with the post-2022 resurgence of contamination. She also expressed concern that several states have signalled intent to withdraw from the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines (the Ottawa Convention) — a development that, if realised, would reverse more than two decades of normative progress.
Ambassador Privitelli set the quantitative framing for the three-day programme. In 2024 alone, more than 6,200 people were killed or injured by landmines and cluster munitions; over half were children. Syria continues to record daily incidents, with more than 1,200 deaths registered in 2025. Ukraine holds the largest contaminated territory in the world by area, with approximately 38% of its agricultural land either directly affected or economically constrained by suspected contamination. Gaza, he noted, presents an exceptional technical challenge given the density of urban ordnance in a confined and heavily degraded built environment.
Key Technical Outputs from the Meeting
UNDP Urban Debris & Ordnance Operational Guide
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched a new operational guide at the margins of the meeting addressing the intersection of urban debris and explosive ordnance — an issue now central to Gaza, Ukraine, and Syrian operations where conventional mine clearance methodology is complicated by massive quantities of rubble mixed with unexploded ordnance (UXO). UNDP teams in Gaza are currently processing approximately 1,500 tonnes of debris daily, with each tonne requiring assessment for embedded explosive hazards before disposal. The guide formalises procedures for managing this non-standard clearance environment, which is not adequately addressed by existing International Mine Action Standards (IMAS). Pending formal IMAS amendment, the guidance is designed to be adopted directly into humanitarian mine action (HMA) Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs).
Drone-Borne ERW and Loitering Munition Legacy
A secondary technical theme is the emerging threat from drone-borne explosive devices and their post-conflict legacy. First-person view (FPV) drones and loitering munitions that fail to detonate on impact present characteristics distinct from conventional ERW: irregular ballistic footprints, fragile fuzing systems in an armed state, partial or non-metallic construction that defeats standard mine detection protocols, and payloads frequently built around commercially sourced energetics of uncertain quality. Preliminary guidance on classification and render-safe procedures for these systems is being developed through the GICHD technical working group structure, with expected linkage to future IMAS revisions. FPV drone ERW encountered in field conditions should be treated as possessing a live, armed fuze in a potentially unstable state; controlled destruction in situ (ED in situ) using a minimum demolition charge commensurate with estimated net explosive quantity (NEQ) is the preferred disposition method pending formal technical guidance.
Ukraine: Scale of Contamination and the $30 Billion Question
Ukraine remains the most intensively contaminated conflict theatre in the world by total area. An estimated 132,000 km² of Ukrainian territory carries suspected ERW contamination — an area approximately equivalent to Greece. Recorded deaths from landmines and ERW exceed 1,200 since the February 2022 full-scale invasion; the actual figure is assessed to be substantially higher given incomplete reporting from frontline oblasts. Thirty-eight per cent of agricultural enterprises operating in frontline regions report explosive ordnance as an active operational hazard, directly constraining food production and rural economic recovery. GICHD estimates the full cost of addressing Ukrainian mine contamination at approximately US $30 billion — a figure that establishes mine action as a macro-scale reconstruction variable, not a residual humanitarian line item.
The Ukraine Mine Action Partner Coordination Workshop (20–21 April) focused on resource coordination, technical survey methodology, and accelerated clearance timelines consistent with Ukrainian government reconstruction targets. Cluster munition remnants (CMR) from 122 mm and 220 mm BM-21/BM-27 multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) strikes, as well as sub-munitions from 155 mm dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) supplied to Ukraine, present particular clearance challenges given wide area distribution, variable dud rates across different munition types, and complex fuze states following extended time-in-ground. Self-destructing fuzes (SDFUSE systems) do not reliably self-destroy under all ground and temperature conditions and must not be treated as rendered safe without physical inspection and confirmation by qualified Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) operators at Level 3 or above.
Programme Architecture and Notable Participants
The NDM-UN29 programme is structured around five flagship plenaries — Enabled Sectors (mine action as a foundation for sustainable development), Emergency Risk Education, the revised Land Release Framework under the updated IMAS, the Donor Dialogue, and Reframing Mine Action (addressing outcome-based financing and private capital). Cross-cutting themes include environmental responsibility and climate considerations, gender inclusion, localisation of mine action programmes, urban clearance strategies, and the application of artificial intelligence (AI), drones, and detection animals. A press conference by USG Lacroix is scheduled for noon on 23 April, with updates on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine, and legacy contamination programmes to follow on 24 April.
Analysis of Effects: Long-Term Post-Conflict Legacy
The statistics presented at the Geneva meeting confirm that ERW contamination operates on a generational timescale. Syria recorded over 1,600 casualties from ERW in 2025 alone, more than a decade after peak conflict intensity, reflecting the persistence of AXO and IEDs in the environment. The chemical degradation findings noted at the meeting — showing that corroding bombs release toxic substances into soil and groundwater — add an environmental contamination vector to the conventional safety hazard model. This has implications for hazard marking and buffer zone calculation: explosive items assessed as posing low immediate detonation risk may still warrant physical removal on environmental protection grounds.
The conference also registered concern over declining donor funding for mine action programmes at a time when contamination levels are rising. UNMAS and national mine action authorities in the most affected states — including Armenia, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Ukraine, Viet Nam, and Zimbabwe — face resource-to-task imbalances that will extend clearance timelines by years or decades relative to published targets. The normative dimension compounds the operational one: any state withdrawal from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention would further erode the legal framework on which the mine action community’s donor case rests.
Personnel and Safety Considerations
The guidance emerging from the Geneva meeting reinforces several operational priorities for EOD and humanitarian demining personnel. Working in debris-heavy urban environments requires modified search procedures that account for vertical as well as horizontal ERW distribution. Items found within rubble piles must be assumed to be in an unknown fuze state regardless of apparent condition. The UNDP debris-EOD guide should be incorporated into standard operating procedures for any humanitarian mine action programme operating in post-conflict urban areas, pending formal IMAS amendment process.
Emerging drone-borne ERW should be treated, in the absence of type-specific authorised procedures, as functionally equivalent to an armed improvised explosive device with an unknown initiation state. No attempt at field render-safe should be made without specific type training and technical authorisation. Where type-specific guidance is not yet issued, EOD teams should capture and report technical data (manufacturer markings, battery state, warhead configuration, fuzing evidence) under biosafety-equivalent handling discipline to support the formal IMAS drafting process.
Data Gaps
DATA GAP: Confirmed total area of ERW contamination globally — the 60-country/100 million figure is a planning estimate; systematic land release data at national level is incomplete for multiple high-contamination states. DATA GAP: Published UNDP debris-EOD guide text not yet available in full for independent technical review. DATA GAP: IMAS amendment timeline for FPV drone and loitering munition ERW classification remains at working group stage. DATA GAP: Dud-rate data for specific cluster munition sub-munition types deployed in Ukraine across different seasonal and ground conditions. DATA GAP: Named states signalling intent to withdraw from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention — referenced in UNMAS opening remarks but not enumerated in the public session.
AI-assisted technical assessment based on open-source material and UN Geneva press briefing coverage of NDM-UN29 (22–24 April 2026). Not a formal intelligence product. Sources: GICHD (gichd.org, Apr 2026), UNDP Geneva press release (Apr 2026), UN Geneva press briefing transcript (ungeneva.org, 22 Apr 2026), NDM-UN29 programme (ndmun.org), Counter-IED Report. Event logos reproduced under editorial fair dealing for reporting on the event itself; all logos and marks remain the property of their respective rights-holders (GICHD; United Nations Mine Action Service / NDM-UN29 organising committee).