Clever Dzabaya was born 42 years ago, the same year a minefield was laid on his ancestral farmland. It was one of many that Rhodesian forces set along the border with Mozambique to form a deadly cordon sanitaire against opposition fighters – minefields that still haunt the rural poor who live among them in what is now Zimbabwe. Landmines claimed Dzabaya’s father’s leg, and dozens of the family’s cattle. Until de-mining began there in 2017, he even had to watch his children cross a minefield to get to school. Last year, his youngest daughter narrowly avoided death when a mine exploded after her classmates threw stones at it.
As the Zimbabwean people usher in a new era, hungry for genuine change and economic recovery, states wanting to assist in the country’s transition to a more prosperous future after the resignation of long-time president Robert Mugabe need to prioritize how best to help.
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Source: The Globe and Mail