New Briefing Paper on improving point of injury trauma care for IED victims

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have become a key tool in asymmetric warfare, employed in the pursuit of many objectives, including destabilization of the state and governing authorities, exertion of control and influence, and creation of fear in a population. More than 80 per cent of civilian IED casualties occur in civilian spaces, and civilians are deliberately targeted, including vulnerable groups such as children. As the proportion of civilian casualties from IEDs continues to increase and considering that an estimated 40 per cent of explosive ordnance casualties do not survive their injuries, an increased emphasis on emergency casualty care is necessary to decrease preventable death and disability among victims.

Improving Point of Injury Trauma Care for IED Victims—a new Briefing Paper from the Small Arms Survey’s Pathway to a Regional C-IED Strategy in West Africa—examines the challenges facing the inclusion of emergency care as a priority within victim assistance and counter-improvised explosive devices (C-IED) strategies, and presents the need for a comprehensive, whole-of-society approach to C-IED, which supports emergency care for civilian IED victims in low-resource settings.

Read: Improving Point of Injury Trauma Care for IED Victims

For more, check out:

• Linking small arms control to national development frameworks—RevCon4 opportunities (June 2024)—a podcast that discusses the connection between small arms and light weapons control and national development processes
• Privately made small arms and other non-industrial weapons (June 2024)—a podcast that discusses issues related to privately made small arms and other non-industrial weapons
• Out of Control: The Trafficking of Improvised Explosive Device Components and Commercial Explosives in West Africa (November 2023)—a Report that analyses data from IED-related incidents between March 2013 and September 2022, and stresses the importance of coordinated regional approaches in eliminating illegal IED use in West and Central Africa
• A Primer: IEDs in the Sahel and West Africa (December 2021)—a blog post about IED use and violence in West Africa
• The Pathway to a Regional C-IED Strategy in West Africa project page
• West Africa outputs in our Resource Library

Other news from the Survey:

• Nouvelle note d’information SANA sur les armes à feu artisanales en Guinée
• New SANA Briefing Paper on the global struggle to halve violent deaths by 2030
• New Situation Update on the dynamics of firearms possession in Ukraine
• New Survey Report on the Arms Trade Treaty in the Indo-Pacific region
• New Small Arms Survey Annual Report 2023
• New SANA blog post on the connection between emotions and violent extremism