American journalist Collin Mayfield was embedded for one-and-a-half months with the People’s Defense Force (PDF) Zoland in Tedim Township, northern Chinland, and was on a routine patrol of a recently-abandoned police checkpoint near Mount Kennedy that had been seized by regime forces weeks earlier when when he stepped on a landmine on Nov. 18.
“I only lost two toes and part of my foot, fortunately. Whereas if I had stepped with my heel, I would have lost my entire foot and part of my leg. My hand got grazed, but none of the tendons were cut, so I can still use my fingers. I have a little bit more mobility in my hand every day,” he told DVB in an interview from his hospital bed in India.
Mayfield was evacuated to the Mizoram State capital of Aizawl, where he received surgery on his left foot at a hospital. Burma has become the world’s deadliest country for landmine and unexploded ordnance since the 2021 coup with the highest number of landmine casualties over the last two years, according to the Landmine Monitor Report 2025.
