A sapper was killed in a mine explosion in Azerbaijan.
An employee of the Mine Action Agency was killed in the Fizuli district. The death toll from mine explosions since the 44-day Karabakh war has reached 422, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has stated.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," security forces, sappers, and local residents are periodically killed by mines in the former Karabakh conflict zone. From November 2020, when the 44-day war in Karabakh ended, until the end of December 2025, 415 people died from mines and unexploded ordnance in Azerbaijan. Of these, 71 were killed and another 344 were injured.
An anti-tank mine explosion occurred today in the village of Ashagi Abdurrahmanli in the Fizuli region, Trend reports, citing the Azerbaijan Republic Mine Action Agency (ANAMA).
According to the agency, the explosion killed agency employee Matili Mugan Rafail oglu, born in 1995, who was on duty, the agency writes.
According to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, taking this incident into account, 422 people have become victims of explosions in uncleared areas.
"Since the 2020 war, 422 Azerbaijani citizens have fallen victim to mines. There is an urgent need to strengthen international support to expand demining work," APA quotes the ministry as saying.
As a reminder, military personnel previously interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" Analysts noted that demining areas after the fighting in Karabakh could drag on for years, as it is a long and complex process.
In November 2023, Azerbaijani authorities announced plans to return 34,500 families (140,000 people) to the former Karabakh conflict zone by the end of 2026. The stated resettlement rate is being constrained, in part by the mine danger, analysts noted in April 2026.
In October 2022, the President of Azerbaijan stated that more than a million mines had been laid in the Karabakh conflict zone, and that demining would take 30 years. He estimated the cost at $25 billion. In August 2023, Azerbaijani public organizations appealed to the UN and the European Union to help resolve the country's demining problem.
In May 2024, the European Union, which had allocated 10 million euros to Azerbaijan for demining since 2020, agreed to increase its financial assistance to Baku for demining the former Karabakh conflict zone to 14 million euros.