A survey of clearance operators and national authorities provides insight into how close three countries are to removing all anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions.
This policy brief summarises data collected for Lebanon, Mauritania and Zimbabwe on budgets for clearing anti-personnel land mines and cluster munitions. This data has been collected for a pilot study funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which focused on the collection of detailed and disaggregated data directly from clearance operators via a questionnaire.
Read more…
Source: Peace Research Institute Oslo
Related:
- Cambodia set to declare six more provinces mine free
July 19, 2023
The government’s strategic policy in the seventh mandate is to clear all landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) remaining on Cambodian soil, said Ly Thuch, first vice-president of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA). Thuch noted that the land at risk spans an area of 1,817sq km,equivalent to 12,072 minefields. These include a mine ...
- Mine-clearing equipment given to Ukraine is ineffective, noisy, and easy to strike
July 19, 2023
Mine-clearing equipment given to Ukrainian forces by the West is “ineffective” because it is noisy, large, and easy to strike, according to a commander speaking The Washington Post. Officers told the publication that the Ukrainian military had encountered minefields between three and ten miles deep, laid with anti-tank and tripwired anti-personnel mines, in their counteroffensive to ...
- Lebanon Is Still Littered With Land Mines
July 17, 2023
On a spring morning near the town of Aarab el-Louaizeh in southern Lebanon, 39-year-old Zeinab Hashem sported an unconventional outfit. In a heavy vest, helmet, and visor that chafed against her skin in the warm weather, Hashem slowly swung a metal detector to survey the few steps of dirt ground ahead of her before declaring ...
- South Korea to supply Ukraine with more mine detectors, demining equipment
July 16, 2023
South Korea will supply Ukraine with more mine detectors and demining equipment as part of its assistance package for the war-torn nation, a presidential official said Sunday. The initiative is made up of nine pillars — three for each type of assistance — including the supply of additional safety equipment, according to Principal Deputy National Security ...
- ‘There is always risk’: The Zimbabwean de-miner in South Sudan
July 14, 2023
When the call came from war-ravaged South Sudan in June 2011, Job Tawengwa did not hesitate to say yes. Harare-based Tawengwa, a de-mining and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) expert, knew it would be risky, as usual. His first call to clear landmines came in 1998, from Mozambique, next to his native Zimbabwe. He joined a team ...
- UNDP and Japan supply vital equipment to boost Ukraine’s demining capacity
July 11, 2023
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the Government of Japan, today announced the delivery of vital equipment and vehicles to aid Ukraine in demining its territories. The package supplied to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) includes 14 cutting-edge pyrotechnic vehicles, mine detectors, car radio stations, and personal protective equipment, including body ...
- Ukraine: Demining Leopard vehicles cannot work in 35-degree heat
July 8, 2023
When it comes to enduring 35-degree heat, the German Leopard 2R tank-based demining machines, supplied to the Ukrainian army from Finland, are somewhat of a hot mess. The demanding temperature requires additional engine cooling, a necessity that unfortunately leads to operational disruptions. Of the three remaining demining machines of this type in the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ ...
- Chinese peacekeepers in Lebanon awarded UN medals of peace
July 6, 2023
A total of 410 peacekeepers of the 21st Chinese peacekeeping contingent to Lebanon were awarded UN medals of peace on Tuesday for their outstanding commitment to maintaining stability and peace in the south of the country. A medal parade ceremony was held at the Chinese peacekeepers’ camp in Hanniyah village in southern Lebanon to honor the ...
- Cambodia: CMAC announces nationwide search for UXOs dropped by US
July 5, 2023
Starting next month, Cambodian Mines Action Centre (CMAC), in cooperation with the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) and other stakeholders, will begin a nationwide survey to detect mines and bombs dropped by US and its allies on Cambodian soil during 1970s. Heng Ratana, Director-General of CMAC, said yesterday that the government plans to ...
- Vietnam: Government approves UXO consequence action programme for 2023-2025
July 4, 2023
The programme aims to mobilise and use domestic and international resources to minimise the effects of UXO on the country’s socio-economic development, ensuring safety for the people. It seeks to promote dissemination activities to raise people’s awareness of mine accidents and help UXO victims reintegrate into the community, as well as its compliance with Vietnamese laws ...
- Ukraine: The lethal minefields holding up Kyiv’s counter-offensive
July 3, 2023
A Ukrainian soldier drags himself through the long grass, one leg trailing limply behind him. Seconds later, a flash of bright orange and a cloud of white smoke mark the spot, just a few metres away, where yet another land mine has been triggered. As a second badly wounded soldier pulls himself up on to the ...
- Underwater robot and drone: Ukraine’s rescue service reveals how it clears mines from bodies of water
July 1, 2023
Modern specialised equipment is being used to inspect bodies of water in Mykolaiv Oblast for explosive devices. Protective buoys were installed wherever divers found explosive devices; the devices were then brought to the surface and transported to the shore by boat, before being loaded into a special vehicle which took them to be destroyed in a ...
- 50 years since US troops left Vietnam, bombs continue to kill
June 26, 2023
Ho Sy Bay, 62, was rummaging around in his garden in central Vietnam when he struck something harder than sand or soil. Cautiously, he brushed aside the surrounding dirt and realised he was staring at an unexploded missile. Although Sy was unsure if the fuse was still intact, he picked up the bomb and placed it ...
- Iraq launches strategy for mine action
June 22, 2023
According to international and local statistics and reports, Iraq is classified as the most contaminated country with mines and unexploded ordnance, which claim many Iraqi lives or cause them permanent disabilities and are spread as a result of the wars Iraq has gone through over the past decades. To address the issues, the Supreme National Committee ...
- Ukraine: Agencies join forces with deminers to reclaim agricultural land
June 22, 2023
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have designed a new joint programme for smallholder farmers and rural families most affected by the conflict. The goal is to clear farmland impacted by the fighting of mines and other explosive remnants of war, safely allowing it to produce crops once again. Read more… Source: ...
- Azerbaijan: ICRC reveals number of mine victims over past 30 years
June 20, 2023
About 3,350 people have become victims of mines in Azerbaijan over the past 30 years, Trend reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) revealed the above figures in its Facebook publication. The ICRC also said that together with the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society, the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA), and the Office ...
- Ukraine: Working group on humanitarian demining to develop mine action strategy
June 18, 2023
“A working group will be created as part of the Interdepartmental Working Group, which will develop the Strategy. Executive bodies were invited to submit candidacies to the group. We are planning to involve all interested persons so that to develop the most effective and practical document,” said First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy, Head ...
- Cambodian war mines removed from Thai border
June 17, 2023
Mines dating back to the Cambodian Civil War five decades ago were successfully removed from Thai territory along the border with Cambodia on Friday. The Thailand Mine Action Centre (TMAC) of the Royal Thai Army was alerted via social media to three reported mines in Ta Phraya district of Sa Kaeo province. Read more… Source: Bangkok Post
- Ukraine: Sweden sending 250 mine detectors to search for landmines scattered after Kakhovka dam flooding
June 15, 2023
Sweden has sent 250 mine detectors to Ukraine to eliminate the consequences of Russia’s destruction of the Kakhovka dam, Sweden’s Ministry of Defense reported on June 14. The equipment sent by Stockholm was intended for civilian mine clearance, said Swedish Minister for Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin. Read more… Source: The New Voice of Ukraine
- Iraq: Demining agency clears a minefield in Soran independent administration
June 14, 2023
The General Directorate of the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (MAA) in Erbil on Wednesday announced in a statement that they had defused a number of mines in the Sidekan district of the Soran independent administration. The statement added that 10 VS-50 mines were defused in the minefield of Spindarok in the Sidekan district. Read more… Source: Kurdistan24 ...
- Lebanon: Chinese peacekeeping engineering contingent to clears eight minefields
June 12, 2023
BEIJING, June 12 — The handover ceremony for a new batch of minefields cleared by the Chinese peacekeepers was held near the “Blue Line” on the Lebanon-Israel border. The staff of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Command, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and other departments signed the minefield handover letter after ...
- Cambodia: RCAF detachment bound for Chinese mine clearance training
June 9, 2023
Eight Cambodian soldiers are bound for China, where they will attend a three-month mine clearance training course. The trainees were due to leave for China on June 9, where they will remain until August, said a June 8 social media post from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF). “Attending this humanitarian mine clearance training course in ...