Source: Save the Children
Over 12,000 children – or more than five every day – were killed or injured by landmines, unexploded ordnance, improvised explosive devices and other explosive ordnance between 2020 and 2025 [1], according to new Save the Children analysis.
The research found that explosive ordnance was the largest single named weapon type category in UN reporting on child casualties, causing more recorded child casualties than air strikes or artillery shelling. Children accounted for nearly half (46%) [2] of civilian casualties from landmines and explosive remnants of war, where age was known.
The report also highlights how the growing use of drones is changing children’s experience of conflict. Drone attacks can kill and injure children directly, while also disrupting the schools, hospitals, homes and humanitarian services they rely on. Their ability to hover overhead, monitor movement and strike with little warning can leave children feeling unsafe even when they are not directly targeted. In Ukraine, drone attacks on schools increased by 358% in 2025 compared with the previous year, forcing many children back into remote learning [3].
Save the Children warns that the international norms designed to protect children and their families are being weakened, while rapidly evolving military technology is exposing children to new explosive threats both during conflicts and long after they end.
Against this backdrop, the need for innovation to support children affected by conflict is more critical than ever. Save the Children UK, Archewell Philanthropies and Imperial College London are today committing to strengthening their existing partnership to support child amputees with the latest prosthetic technology, rehabilitation and long-term physical and mental health support.
Claire Sanford, Conflict and Humanitarian Director at Save the Children UK, said:
“Children are facing a new generation of explosive threats from the air, on the ground, and increasingly enabled by AI. As technologies transform conflict, with devastating consequences for children, both partnership and political action are urgently needed. Governments must ensure that the laws and protections designed to keep children safe evolve with changes to warfare. Children’s rights and safety must remain at the centre of decisions about how emerging technologies are developed and used.”
In 2025, air-launched explosive weapons, including drones, were involved in around two-thirds (67%) of incidents that harmed civilians worldwide [3]. The growing use of AI and other technologies in warfare also raises concerns about how decisions to use force are being made, particularly when children and other civilians are present.
In Sudan, drone attacks accounted for 78% of reported child casualties between January and March 2026 [4]. Health professionals have reported carrying out medical procedures using only a phone light, to reduce the risk of detection and attack by drones. The true scale of harm remains largely unseen.
The report also highlights Gaza as an example of a new phase in modern warfare, in which drone surveillance, AI-supported targeting and other unmanned systems are being used at an alarming scale in densely populated areas.
Save the Children is calling on the international community to stop the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and enforce stronger political and military policies to protect children in conflict. The organisation is also calling for the international community to invest in victim assistance, research, and rehabilitation for children affected by blast injuries, and establish international rules for AI technology that require meaningful human control and prohibit systems that can select and engage people to target without human oversight.
Notes:
- The report draws on evidence from the United Nations, including the UN Secretary-General’s Annual Reports on Children and Armed Conflict, UNICEF, OHCHR and other UN human rights monitoring mechanisms; the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, Explosive Weapons Monitor and Insecurity Insight, as well as Save the Children’s own research and analysis.
- [1] United Nations, Children and Armed Conflict: Report of the Secretary-General, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026. Calculation: UN data records 12,053 children killed or injured by explosive ordnance between 2020 and 2025. There are 2,191 days across this six-year period (including the leap year). Dividing 12,053 by 2,191 gives an average of 5.5 children killed or injured every day.
- [2] Landmine Monitor 2025: Landmine-Monitor-2025-Final-Online-updated.pdf
- [3] Explosive Weapons Monitor: Explosive-Weapons-Monitor-2025.pdf
- [4] Unicef 2026: At least 245 child casualties in Sudan in first 90 days of 2026