Friday 22 September saw the return of the annual shoe pyramid event to Paris, hosted by the NGO Handicap International. The public is invited to take off their shoes, so as to form a huge pyramid. This symbolizes the wounded and maimed victims of mines and cluster bombs.
The NGO Handicap International deplored the return of “banned weapons, such as anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions”.
According to the international watchdog “Cluster Munitions Coalition”, despite the weapons being banned in over 100 countries, 987 deaths and injuries were documented in attacks in 2022.
The purpose of cluster munitions is to disseminate dozens or hundreds of lethal anti-personnel or anti-tank devices over a given territory. However, they do not fully explode on impact, making them an extremely dangerous threat to civilians.
This year’s Shoe Pyramid protest comes after the United States announced in July that it would send cluster bombs to Ukraine, to help Kiev fight the Russian invasion.
Image:Getty Images
