IEDsThere has been a 70% rise in civilian casualties from IEDs around the world since 2011

There has been a dramatic rise in civilian casualties from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) over the last three years, new data from Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) show.

Numbers compiled from English-language media reports show there was a 70 percent rise in the number of civilian casualties globally from IEDs like car bombs and suicide vests last year compared to 2011. In 2011 13,340 civilians were killed and injured by IEDs. 2013 saw this number shoot up to 22,735.

In total AOAV’s data, which has been compiled over the last three years and which is used by the United Nations for tracking explosive weapon harm, showed there have been over 60,000 deaths and injuries from IEDs in 2011-13, with civilians accounting for 81 percent of these casualties.

An AOAV release reports that IEDs did not just impact Iraq and Afghanistan. AOAV recorded IED incidents in sixty-six different countries and territories in the last three years. Of these countries, eight, including Pakistan, Nigeria, and Thailand, saw over 1,000 civilian casualties of IEDs.

New trends show that civilians are at greater risk due to the increased use of large vehicle-borne IEDs and the rise in the numbers of incidents occurring in populated areas.

The figures showed that:

• In 2013, 62 percent of all IED incidents took place in populated areas, like markets and cafes. This is compared to 51 percent in 2011.
• Civilians are at much greater risk from IEDs in populated areas. Ninety-one percent of casualties from IEDs in populated areas were civilians, compared to 42 percent in other areas.
• Car bombs are being used more frequently. The proportion of IED attacks involving car bombs rose from 11 percent of all IED incidents in 2011, to 33 percent in 2013. Each car bomb incident caused an average of twenty-five civilian casualties.
• Over the last three years 34 percent of civilian casualties from IEDs were caused by suicide bombers. Suicide bombs were reported in twenty-six different countries, causing over 18,000 civilian casualties in the last three years.

“This huge increase in the number of innocent victims harmed and killed by IEDs is a terrible concern. Not only to those whose lives are transformed in an instant by these pernicious weapons, but to governments who have to bear the costs of the medical and security implications of these attacks. The use of suicide and car bombing as a major weapon is spreading, and fast. Countries that had not seen their use five years ago are experiencing their horrors now,” said Iain Overton, AOAV’s Director of Investigations.

“Governments should wake up to this emerging reality. Explosive munition stockpiles should be better maintained to prevent explosives from being smuggled out. Victims of IED attacks should receive proper medical and psychological help,” said AOAV’s CEO Steve Smith. “And society at large should respond, condemning this rising use, just as they did on land mines and poison gas. Because if actions like these are not carried out then the use of IEDs in populated areas will continue its harmful and bloody ascent.”

The release notes that AOAV’s data on IEDs is drawn from almost 500 different English-language media sources. It captures only a snapshot of worldwide explosive violence as reported in the news media. As such it presents only a low estimate of the real extent of suffering caused by explosive violence.

AOAV has also produced a film that counters the narratives used by violent extremists to justify suicide bombings. The film can be viewed here.

AOAV has also carried out research on the long term impacts of IED attacks with a detailed examination of the aftermath of the Moon Market bombing in Lahore, Pakistan.