New report documents continued use, production, and enduring contamination ahead of the Third Review Conference in Vientiane.
(Geneva, 8 September 2026) – Cluster munitions killed or injured at least 1,063 people in 2025, one of the highest annual totals ever recorded, according to Cluster Munition Monitor 2026, released today by the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), ahead of a milestone international conference reviewing the progress and challenges of the global ban on cluster munitions.
Civilians continued to bear the overwhelming human cost of these indiscriminate weapons, accounting for 87% of casualties. New casualties from cluster munition attacks (946) or remnants (117) were recorded in nine countries in 2025: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iraq, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Myanmar, Russia, Syria, and Ukraine. Ukraine recorded at least 927 casualties—the highest country total globally for the fourth consecutive year.
The findings come as states prepare to meet in Vientiane, Lao PDR (from 14–18 September) for the Third Review Conference on the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, 16 years after the convention entered into force. Lao PDR hosted the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties in 2010 and is the most cluster munition-affected country in the world.
While the 2008 convention banning these weapons continues to deliver tangible humanitarian results, the norm it created is under mounting pressure from ongoing use and production, the first-ever withdrawal of a State Party, and deep cuts to funding for clearance and survivor support.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions now has 112 States Parties and 12 signatories, following Vanuatu’s accession to the convention in September 2025 and Lithuania’s withdrawal, which took effect in March 2025; Lithuania became the first country ever to withdraw from the convention. There has been no confirmed use, production, or transfer of cluster munitions by a State Party since joining the convention. In another major achievement, 42 States Parties have destroyed all of their declared stockpiles, collectively eliminating 1.49 million cluster munitions and 179 million submunitions. Efforts to protect civilian lives and return safe land to productive use have accelerated. In 2025, the amount of land released increased by 15% compared with 2024, while risk education continued to help keep communities safe across most affected States Parties.
“This year’s findings show a convention that keeps delivering results to affected communities,” said Tamar Gabelnick, Director of the Cluster Munition Coalition. “Yet the rising human toll, continued and new use, production, and transfers by states not party are stark warnings that these gains cannot be taken for granted. And as humanitarian needs grow, funding cuts are stripping away the care survivors depend on.”
At the same time, the reporting period saw troubling developments, primarily involving states outside the convention, that risk undermining the broader norm against cluster munitions.
During the reporting period, cluster munitions were used by Iran, Myanmar, Russia, Thailand, and Ukraine, all states not party to the convention. Iran used cluster munitions repeatedly in Israel in 2026, Thailand used them against Cambodia in 2025 amid the two countries’ border conflict, while both Russia and Ukraine continued to use cluster munitions in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war. Use was also reported on the territory of State Party Mali that requires further investigation to determine which of the conflicts’ combatants were responsible. Allegations of use by other states not party—including Israel, Pakistan, and possibly the US—as well as by Houthi forces operating in Yemen were also reported but remained unconfirmed.
Cluster Munition Monitor 2026 identifies 18 countries that still produce cluster munitions or reserve the right to do so, none of them party to the convention. The Monitor found evidence of new production during the reporting period in China, India, Israel, Myanmar, North Korea, Poland, Romania, Russia, and South Korea. Notably, Israel resumed production under a three-year contract with the United States (US) Department of Defense, having announced in 2020 that its last known manufacturer had ceased producing cluster munitions. North Korea tested ballistic missiles carrying cluster munition warheads twice in April 2026. Furthermore, the Monitor found evidence of the US intention to start producing these weapons again in the future.
New transfers also came to light. Evidence emerged that North Korea transferred cluster munitions to Russia, as North Korean-produced cluster munitions were used by Russia in Ukraine in 2025; and in September 2025, Israel was contracted to produce and transfer cluster munitions to the US.
“In Lao PDR, more than 50 years after the bombing stopped, impoverished farmers and children are still being killed and maimed by these indiscriminate weapons,” said Phongsavath Manitong, a cluster munition survivor from Lao PDR who now heads an association of persons with disabilities. “I know because I was one of those children. I lost my arm and eyesight to a cluster munition when I was 16, as I was walking home from school. These weapons do not stop harming people when the fighting stops. They take our land, our work, and sometimes our children, for generations.”
A total of 29 countries and other areas are known to be contaminated by cluster munition remnants, including 11 States Parties to the convention.
The Monitor warns that insufficient and declining resources risk undermining progress in both clearance and assistance to victims. Despite efforts by affected states, humanitarian organizations, and service providers, improvements in the development of dedicated policy frameworks did not translate into victims’ improved access to services. Conflict, displacement, damaged health systems, and reductions in donor funding further weakened assistance in affected countries. In Lao PDR, the main multi-year victim assistance support project was forced to shut down as a result of cuts in USAID funding.
In 2025, approximately US$116 million in international and national funding was provided to address cluster munition contamination. However, the US foreign assistance freeze in February 2025 disrupted clearance in several regions, including Southeast Asia, while subsequent grant terminations reduced mine action capacity in Afghanistan, Iraq, and South Sudan. Other major donors have also reduced allocations and narrowed their geographic focus.
The choice of Lao PDR as the location of the Third Review Conference in September brings this devastating legacy into particularly sharp focus. Lao PDR is still heavily affected by cluster munition remnant contamination despite accounting for the majority of cluster munition-contaminated land released by States Parties in 2025. Returning to Lao PDR 16 years after states first gathered there as parties to the new convention provides an opportunity to demonstrate that the international community remains committed to ending the suffering caused by cluster munitions.
“The choice facing governments in Vientiane is not simply whether to reaffirm commitments made 16 years ago, but whether to dedicate the political leadership and resources needed to deliver on them,” said Gabelnick. “For communities living with cluster munition contamination and for survivors requiring lifelong support, progress on paper must translate into meaningful change in their daily lives.”
Cluster Munition Monitor 2026’s findings provide a measure of both what the convention has achieved and where greater action is needed: preserving the prohibition of use; strengthening the global norm against cluster munitions; expanding adherence to the convention; clearing contaminated land; meeting the needs and rights of victims; and ensuring sufficient and sustainable international cooperation and assistance, including financial support.
Press release, available in Arabic, English, French, Spanish.
Major Findings are also available in Arabic, English, French, German, Spanish
Maps can be found at: https://the-monitor.org/reports/cluster-munition-monitor-2026/maps
