Azerbaijan

Following the adoption of the Law on Humanitarian Demining Activities in February 2025, Azerbaijan adopted revised national mine action standards (ANMAR) between September and November 2025. Its mine action programme will be guided by the “Second State Programme on the Great Return to the Liberated Territories of Azerbaijan” (“The Second Great Return Programme”) from 2027 until 2030. Azerbaijan continues its massive clearance of mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), including cluster munition remnants (CMR). Based on data provided by the Mine Action Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan (ANAMA) on battle area clearance (BAC), Mine Action Review has estimated that 13km² of cluster munition-contaminated area was released through clearance in 2025. ANAMA reported that 1,783 submunitions were destroyed. This estimated clearance figure is an increase on the previous year; in 2025 Azerbaijan destroyed 1,099 fewer submunitions in polygons but over an estimated area 11.8km² greater than that estimated in 2024.

• Azerbaijan should commit to never again use cluster munitions and should accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) as a matter of priority.
• ANAMA should work to establish a nationwide baseline of CMR-contaminated area using evidence-based non-technical survey (NTS) and technical survey (TS).
• ANAMA should ensure that CMR survey, clearance, and contamination data are disaggregated from data relating to other ERW and mines.
• Azerbaijan should allow cancellation of areas through NTS, which is not permitted under existing standards, and should revise its national mine action standards (NMAS, known as ANMAR) to allow this.
• ANAMA should elaborate a separate methodology for clearing CMR, distinct from BAC, ensuring that the footprint of a cluster strike is identified and that clearance is conducted to an appropriate fade-out distance.
• ANAMA should finalise and adopt a new draft mine action strategy to replace the one that expired in 2018, reflecting the significant increase in explosive ordnance (EO) contamination now under Azerbaijan’s control.

Click here to download the full "Clearing Cluster Munition Remnants 2026" report for Azerbaijan.