What are explosive weapons?

When explosive weapons are used in populated areas, around 9 out of 10 people killed or injured are civilians, according to recent global monitoring of explosive violence. This Issues section explains why that happens, why it is treated as “normal”, and how you can help change it.

Explosive weapons are designed to kill, injure, and destroy through blast and fragmentation, including aerial bombs, artillery shells, mortars, rockets, missiles, and improvised explosive devices. On open battlefields, some of their force can dissipate into space, but in towns and cities it is absorbed by homes, hospitals, schools, markets, and the people inside them.

When an explosive weapon detonates, it:

  • Generates a powerful blast that can flatten buildings and crush people inside

  • Projects lethal fragments that tear through streets, vehicles, and anyone nearby

  • Ignites fires and causes secondary explosions that spread destruction further

Most explosive weapons are either inaccurate or have wide area effects, so they cannot be neatly confined to a single military target in dense urban environments. The result is large numbers of civilian casualties, damage or destruction of water, electricity, health care, and education services, and the displacement of communities who may never return home.

Modern armed forces are built around these weapons. Fighter jets drop bombs and fire missiles, warships launch torpedoes and cruise missiles, and armies bombard with mortars, artillery shells, and tank rounds. Monitoring in 2024 recorded 67,026 people killed or injured by explosive weapons worldwide, including 59,524 civilians, about 89 percent of all casualties; in towns and cities, civilians made up 95 percent of those harmed and 97 percent of all recorded civilian casualties (see “Explosive Violence Monitor 2024”).

These findings confirm that when wars are fought in urban areas with explosive weapons, civilians inevitably bear the brunt of the violence.

Next step: Learn how this pattern of destruction becomes structural humanitarian harm.