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:
- Armenian demining experts demine 2,000,000 square meters of territory in Damascus along with UNMAS
November 23, 2021
Within the scope of the agreement that Armenia and the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) signed on October 25, 2021, on November 21, a demining group of the Humanitarian Demining and Expertise Center SNCO left for Damascus under the leadership of the SNCO’s director Vaghinak Sargsyan. As reported the Humanitarian Demining and Expertise Center SNCO, ...
- Clearing Afghanistan’s landmines one careful step a time
November 18, 2021
Weeks after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, families who fled the fighting in one southern village returned home to find something strange: the cricket ground had been circled in rocks painted red and white. White, it turned out, meant it was safe for children to play. But red signalled buried landmines and other ordnance — the ...
- South Korea: New lab launched to apply AI tech for demining operations
November 16, 2021
South Korea opened a research laboratory Tuesday to develop a demining solution utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance accuracy of the military’s mine clearance operations, the defense ministry said. The ministries of defense and science established the laboratory at the Army Engineer School in Jangseong, 308 kilometers south of Seoul, as part of their joint project ...
- 30 Years of Impact – An Evaluation of the Mine Action Programme of Afghanistan
November 15, 2021
Due to successive waves of instability and conflict from the 1980s onwards, Afghanistan was heavily contaminated by explosive ordnance (EO). Established to improve this situation, the Mine Action Programme of Afghanistan (MAPA) commenced activities in 1988. MAPA is a platform and umbrella structure for mine action, linking coordinating bodies, donors, and implementing partners. As of August ...
- Demining exercise benefits communities in Zimbabwe’s border region
November 15, 2021
Mount Darwin District in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland Central Province has been declared landmine free following landmine clearance efforts by the government. The southern African country is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, where landmines have killed more than 1,500 people and 120,000 head of livestock since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. Belts of landmines were ...
- Cambodia: UNDP supports mine-free 2025 goal
November 11, 2021
Ly Thuch, Senior Minister and First Vice-President of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA), asked the recently appointed UNDP Representative to Cambodia Alissar Chakar to continue support and provide additional resources for Cambodia’s demining efforts. Thuch requested the assistance when he met Chaker during a courtesy call at the CMAA headquarters, where they ...
- Ukraine sets up new government body to cope with landmines
November 11, 2021
The Ukrainian cabinet on Wednesday set up the National Authority for Mine Action, a special government body that will deal with the landmine problem in eastern Ukraine, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported. The new body, led by the defense minister, will coordinate the activities of various ministries, central and local authorities, and organizations involved in the work ...
- Landmine casualties ‘exceptionally high’, Syria and Afghanistan worst-hit
November 10, 2021
According to Landmine Monitor 2021, the number of victims rose by 20 per cent in 2020 compared with the previous 12 months, the result of “increased armed conflict and contamination” of land with improvised mines. In total, more than 7,000 people were killed or injured in 54 countries and areas, while Myanmar was the only State ...
- Nagorno-Karabakh: Land still laced with mines, year after war
November 9, 2021
A year after intense fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, the territory is still so heavily laced with mines and unexploded weaponry that it could take more than 10 years to be fully cleared. Over the past year, thousands of munitions have been removed but de-mining agencies say a lack of resources and insufficient information ...
- Cambodia: 2sq km of minefields left to clear in Battambang’s Kamrieng district
November 5, 2021
A swathe of Battamabang province’s Kamrieng distirct spanning 27sq km has been cleared of landmines, with a total of 40,065 anti-personnel mines collected and destroyed as of September, according to the Cambodia Mine Victim Information System (CMVIS) – an entity under the umbrella of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA). CMVIS said a ...
- Norway and Vietnam to continue assistance and cooperation in Mine Action in Vietnam
November 4, 2021
On 29 October, Mr. Jan Erik Støa, Country Director of Norwegian People’s Aid Vietnam (NPA), and Mr. Tran Trung Hoa, the Director-General of Vietnam National Mine Action Center (VNMAC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on continued assistance and cooperation in Mine Action in Vietnam for the period 2021-2025. According to an NPA statement, the signing ceremony ...
- Cambodia: MoU signed to find funding for Preah Sihanouk mine clearance
October 26, 2021
Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Cambodia Emergency Rescue People’s Association (CERPA), aimed at appealing for funding from Chinese investors to support mine clearing projects in Preah Sihanouk. The signing of the MoU took place at Preah Sihanouk provincial hall. CMAA first vice-president Ly Thuch said that Preah ...
- Lebanon’s townspeople hope for mine-free orchards after two decades of fear
October 25, 2021
From the balcony of a mosque in Lebanon’s southern town of Abbasiya, a group of townspeople have been anxiously monitoring their orchards for two decades, as the land was planted with mines by the Israeli army before its withdrawal in 2000. Unfortunately, Lebanese authorities failed to clean the orchards and spare the town’s residents from the ...
- Yemen war: Deadly landmines blight the lives of children on western coast
October 23, 2021
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah used to have a carefree life, sailing on the sea with his father and brothers looking for fish instead of going to school. The 11-year-old is from a coastal village in Hodeidah’s Duraihimi district, where most of the people, including children, work in fishing to provide for their families and where education is ...
- UK funding for land mine clearance scrapped in Lebanon, Iraq and S. Sudan
October 9, 2021
UK government funding for land mine clearance in Lebanon, Iraq and South Sudan, as well as three other countries, has been scrapped in what humanitarian organisations called a “catastrophic collapse in support”. The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) released a statement earlier this week estimating that UK funding for mine action removal will be reduced by 80 ...
- MAG responds to catastrophic collapse in UK support for landmine clearance
October 8, 2021
Below is a statement from MAG CEO Darren Cormack, responding to the news that UK funding for humanitarian mine action has been slashed by 80 per cent. MANCHESTER — The UK Government’s decision to reduce its funding for humanitarian mine action by 80 per cent is a catastrophic collapse in support that will harm the lives ...
- Cambodia: Mine educational material reach over 740,000 people
October 4, 2021
In the first nine months of this year, mine-related institutions have provided educational material to more than 740,000 people, according to the Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAA). In a report on October 4, it said that from January to September, through the CMAA, relevant institutions and national and international mine operators have provided material to 740,070 ...
- Nearly 12 000 landmines destroyed by Sri Lanka under the Mine Ban Convention
October 1, 2021
“Sri Lanka is pleased to confirm that the Humanitarian Demining Unit of the Sri Lanka Army has destroyed nearly 12,000 stockpiled anti-personnel mines almost a year earlier than the deadline set to us by the treaty that bans the production, use, stockpile, and transfer of these indiscriminate weapons”, announced officials at the National Mine Action ...
- Development partners to mobilise support to expand Asean ARMAC
September 29, 2021
Minister of Foreign Affairs Prak Sokhonn has urged development partners to mobilise support to further expand the outreach of ASEAN Regional Mine Action Center (ARMAC) to benefit Asean countries and region. Sokhonn was speaking at the inaugural launch of the Friends of the ASEAN Regional Mine Action Center or FoA. The inaugural launch of FoA last week ...
- Joint project with EU, UNDP to clear 80,000 mines in eastern Turkey
September 28, 2021
More than 80,000 land mines located on the border with Iran in eastern Turkey will be cleared as part of a joint project prepared by the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The project to clear antipersonnel mines stretching over an area of 4.2 million square meters of land (1,037 acres) will start ...
- Cambodia: Koh Kong province to be declared landmine free soon
September 25, 2021
Cambodia Mine Action Authority (CMAA) plans to soon declare villages in Koh Kong province no longer threatened by landmines. CMAA said yesterday that its secretary-general visited Koh Kong province to inspect the 27 landmine fields located in 10 villages, five communes and Botum Sakor and Sre Ambel districts between September 21 to September 23. It said the ...
- Can a cheap AI rover save thousands of lives at risk from landmines?
September 22, 2021
In 59 countries, leftover weapons of war continue to maim and kill civilians decades after a conflict has passed. An international team at Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII) is working to change that, now entering the final phase of testing a cheap, easy-to-assemble rover that can detect unexploded landmines. The autonomous rover is the product of ...

