U.S.$21 Million Needed to Complete Demining

21 April 2011

Maputo — The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates at 21 million US dollars the funding needed to complete mine clearance in Mozambique between 2012 and 2014 – and most of this monry has not yet been pledged by donors.

The resident representative of the UN system in Mozambique, Jennifer Topping, gave the estimate on Wednesday at a meeting of the government’s National Mine Action Programme (PNAM), aimed at consulting demining partners and seeking solutions for the final phase of mine clearance.

Topping was optimistic about the progress of demining. She said that the recent delivery of several districts “free of mines” had led to socio-economic gains for the communities living in those areas. Demining was contributing to poverty reduction and to improved living conditions, and was thus irrefutably linked to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Since Mozambique ratified the Ottawa Treaty outlawing anti-personnel land mines in 1998, more than 300 million square metres of territory have been cleared of mines. But there remain an estimated nine million square metres that are still mined.

This area should be cleared by 2014. The original deadline for completing demining operations, under the Ottawa Treaty, was 2009. It was impossible to meet this deadline, and so the Mozambican government applied for, and was granted, a five year extension.

Topping thought that completing mine clearance was a fundamental prerequisite for development. “This means that we must not only maintain technical and financial support”, she said, “but we also need to redouble our efforts in applying good practices and innovative approaches to step up progress in this final phase”.

While demining is not complete, these lethal leftovers from 20th century wars are continuing to claim victims. In 2010, land mine explosions killed seven people and maimed a further 24.

The PNAM figures, announced by Deputy Foreign Minister Henrique Banze, show that in 2008-2010, 499 areas, covering 12.7 million square metres, were declared free of mines. Over this period, 2,676 mines and 1,514 other items of unexploded ordnance were destroyed.

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