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International military forces leave behind a country facing growing insecurity and levels of violence, a faltering economy and multiple humanitarian crises. Buried amongst the dozens of pressing challenges in Afghanistan is an issue that rarely receives the international spotlight: the Read More …
Migrants attempting to cross into Western Europe via the so-called Balkan route face several risks including drowning, abuse, exploitation and gender-based violence. Added to that is the risk posed by land mines. The Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine Action Centre estimates Read More …
Chalak Taha has spent most of the last 27 years searching the mountains for danger. Tucked among dry grasses on a steep hillside outside Wilyawa village in Sulaimani province, a member of his demining team has found one of potentially Read More …
Over 1 500 people have been killed or maimed by landmines while more than 120 000 livestock have also perished since independence in 1980. As a result, a local Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) organisation has urged the government to compile Read More …
On the wide, flat plain of the Sinjar district of northern Iraq, Naif Khalaf Qassim lets his dog, an eight-year-old Belgian shepherd, range across the dry earth on a 30-metre leash until Branco stops and sits, tail wagging, looking towards Read More …
The Zimbabwean government on Tuesday bemoaned the lack of adequate funding from donors and international partners to support its demining efforts. Zimbabwe is one of the most densely mined countries in the world. While the country’s land mine clearance started Read More …
In 2005 the U.N. instituted the first International Landmine Awareness Day, calling for joint action by states to encourage demining activities in countries where landmines pose a serious threat to the safety, health and life of civilian populations. Even though Read More …
We all want to wind down when we reach retirement age – and it’s no different for landmine-sniffing rodent Magawa. After five years of hard work, the African giant pouched rat, known as a “hero rat”, is finishing work on Read More …
APOPO, an NGO operating in countries where there are landmines left over from previous conflicts, is working on a grand-scale project that will help local communities and wildlife in Zimbabwe, clearing more than seven million square metres of land. The Read More …
The Saudi Project for Landmine Clearance (Masam) dismantled 3,154 mines in Yemen during the second week of May, the Saudi Press Agency reported. They comprised 122 antipersonnel mines, 2,720 anti-tank mines and 312 unexploded ordnances. Masam is one of several Read More …
Following the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action last month, ABColombia reflects on the ongoing presence of antipersonnel mines in Colombia. While mines may have been planted with the aim of reaching other armed groups or Read More …
Mines pose a danger in 118 municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it is estimated that there are 180,000 of them, according to the demining plan for this year. The document states that data on 264,011 households in vulnerable communities Read More …
A man was killed on Sunday when a landmine exploded while he was foraging for wild vegetables in the mountains of Erbil province’s Choman district, according to an official. This is the second mine incident in the district this spring. Read More …
With the support from the Government of Japan (USD 825,000), the United Nations Mine Action Service Syria Response Programme (UNMAS SRP) launched the new project “Humanitarian Mine Action to address increased threat associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in Syria (31 Read More …
The Mine Action Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan plans to purchase new equipment for mechanical demining, an employee of the agency Musa Mammadov told Trend. According to Mammadov, the agency currently has six mechanical demining machines at its disposal. Read More …
Just two days after a Defense Department spokesperson said the Trump administration landmine policy remained in place and that landmines were a “vital tool,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on April 8 that President Joe Biden Read More …
Message from the Senior Programme Manager, Mr. Pehr Lodhammar What a tumultuous yet transformative and rewarding year it has been! When I look back at 2020, the challenges brought forth with the emergence and swift transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic Read More …
Some 82 anti-personnel and 18 anti-tank mines, as well as 79 unexploded ordnance, were found and neutralized on the liberated territories between April 19 and April 24, Azerbaijan’s Mine Action Agency has reported. Some 90.8 hectares of the Azerbaijani territories Read More …
In Afghanistan, Angola and Libya, digging out the deadly remnants of war takes nerves of steel and increasingly sophisticated mapping technology. Mine removal is dangerous and painstaking: Before the introduction of advanced technological support, the work was mostly manual. Teams Read More …
In a letter to the United Nations, Venezuela requested technical and technological assistance to deactivate anti-personnel mines, a diplomatic source noted. Venezuelan Ambassador Samuel Moncada met on Tuesday with representatives of the UN Service for Mine-Related Activities, and ratified the Read More …