A hunter was killed by a leftover landmine in Croatia today. Almost 30 years after the war ended, 150 square kilometers (about 60 square miles) still needs to be cleared of landmines. Since 1996 over 200 hundred people have been killed in Croatia from leftover mines.
In the last few years refugees and migrants are especially vulnerable because they are forced into remote areas due to violent pushback by Croatian police, which performs this violent deterrence on behalf of unofficial EU policy.
A little over a month since the last fatality from a leftover mine in Croatia, two deminers, a man and a woman, died while working at a minefield in Lika today. https://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/poginulo-dvoje-pirotehnicara-tijela-jedva-izvukli-iz-minskog-polja-ocevid-prekinut/2440931.aspx?index_ref=naslovnica_vijesti_najcitanije_d
40 deminers and over 200 people have died from leftover mines in Croatia since the end of the war in 1995. Currently the Croatian government expects the demining efforts to complete by 2026, which will be 31 years after the war.
Today 500 residents of Rijeka were temporarily evacuated as part of a planned neutralization of a leftover World War II naval mine that was found in its port recently.
Coincidentally, another leftover explosive device from WWII was found in Rijeka this Friday, when a bomb was found at a construction site.
Another leftover explosive device incident in Croatia - today a construction worker was injured in the very center of Zagreb while clearing debris on a roof by an explosive most likely left over from the May 1995 Zagreb rocket attack which killed 7 and injured 215 people. https://www.index.hr/mobile/vijesti/clanak/video-na-krovu-zgrade-na-zrinjevcu-eksplodirao-zvoncic-ozlijedjen-strani-radnik/2466292.aspx
This attack is one of my few memories of war.
Another fatal incident in Croatia that may be related to landmines/explosives left over from war.
An explosion killed a child *outside a car that pulled over near Zadar. The cause of the explosion is not yet clear, but there is speculation that the family may have picked up an unexploded device somewhere else and stored it in the car. Three other people were injured and they are all Czech nationals.
* Corrected
Croatia is currently scheduled to be proclaimed "landmine free" in 2026, 31 years after the end of the war.
That means that the last areas that are *known* and marked as dangerous will be cleared. There will likely remain many buried and unknown explosive devices, like those left over from WWII that are still found all over Europe.
Božinović commented on the plan for a mine-free Croatia at a ceremony in the town of Josipdol, where he presented a HRK 241 million project, Karlovac KARST, for the removal of mines from forests in the areas of Karlovac and Josipdol. The implementation of the project will create prospects for job creation in the region, he added. Karlovac County Prefect ... Read more
It's been a while since I posted to this thread documenting landmine related injuries and fatalities in Croatia.
This time I have encouraging news. Per the government's report from March, Croatia is on track to be proclaimed "landmine free" by March 2026. As of January 2025 47,2 square kilometers remain to be cleared.
Ministar Božinović na sjednici Vlade predstavio je i druge aktualnosti iz djelokruga rada Ministarstva unutarnjih poslova
An update on the demining efforts in Croatia. As of September 2025, 26.35 square kilometers remain to be cleared of land mines. It's likely that by the March 2026 deadline the country will actually be mine free, 30 years after the end of the war.
Demining in Croatia has been slow, and if it is completed by the March 2026 deadline it will have taken 31 years. The original deadline set in 1997 was 2019. The rate of demining seems to have picked up significantly in the last few years though. By 1998 only 40 square kilometers had been cleared, while the clearance rate lately has been around 50 square km per year.
While early estimates suspected up to 13 000 sq. kilometers of suspected hazardous areas, in 2003 that was lowered to 1174 km2.
We're finally in the home stretch of demining efforts in Croatia. As of December 2025 5.8 square kilometers remain to be cleared. The monthly report now gives an estimated number of mines left: 795.
Seems like the March 2026 deadline will be met.
This is likely my final monthly update on the demining in cro
As of Jan 9 2026, 1.2 square km remain. We're down to 200 suspected mines remaining in two minefields (near Donji Lapac and Otočac)
It's wild to compare this almost fully cleared map to where it was just 3 years ago
I started tracking demining efforts in Croatia in January 2023, when 150 sq. km had to be cleared: https://mastodon.vladovince.com/@mejs/109694795509648263
So where did we start from?
In 1996 the UN estimated a staggering 12,275 sq. km of suspected hazardous areas. This was corrected down to 1,174 sq. km by 2003 (along with some clearance, so the total actual area in 1996 was more than 1,174 but less than 12,275)
Demining became a commercial effort in Croatia pretty early on, performed by private companies and coordinated by the HCR (Croatian Demining Center)
The launch of the MIS Portal (Mine Information System) in 2009 made this work more transparent and accessible, with live map updates: https://misportal.hcr.hr
The MIS is good old school software, with slides
I found a couple of interesting decks and articles from when it was being developed
Croatian interior minister announced today that demining is now fully complete - 31 years after the war in Croatia ended.
https://glashrvatske.hrt.hr/en/domestic/croatia-declared-free-of-landmines-after-31-years-12593533
I started to follow demining efforts in Croatia 3 years ago in this thread. You can find the first post here: https://mastodon.vladovince.com/@mejs/109694795509648263
With war and conflict escalating worldwide daily, I shudder to think how long it will take to make lands free of explosives once the killings finally stop.
Attached: 1 image A hunter was killed by a leftover landmine in Croatia today. Almost 30 years after the war ended, 150 square kilometers (about 60 square miles) still needs to be cleared of landmines. Since 1996 over 200 hundred people have been killed in Croatia from leftover mines. In the last few years refugees and migrants are especially vulnerable because they are forced into remote areas due to violent pushback by Croatian police, which performs this violent deterrence on behalf of unofficial EU policy.
Yesterday I came across this Interreg funding board at the Drava river. I thought it was about a bike path, but it was actually a demining project in 2016.
Sobering but also important - Interreg now funds cross border projects in candidate countries. Opportunity for funding demining in BiH.
A very good short documentary about landmines in Croatia, filmed just before demining concluded earlier this year. It's a bit light on the scope and demining process, but it does great job covering the human side of this awful story.
Vlado Vince
