ETHIOPIA: Two million threatened by landmines, survey finds

ADDIS ABABA, 11 March 2004 (IRIN) - Landmines threaten the lives of 2 million people in Ethiopia, according to the findings of an international two-year survey to be released on Thursday. The Ethiopian Landmine Impact Survey also reveals that over the past two years 16,000 people have been involved in landmine blast incidents, of whom 1,295 were killed or injured. "There is a chance that anyone of these 2 million people could be injured or killed by landmines or unexploded ordnance [UXO]. Their daily lives are hindered in one way or another by landmines," Adam Combs of Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), the survey's director, told IRIN on Wednesday. Ethiopia is one of the world's 10 most heavily mined countries – a legacy of successive conflicts over the last 70 years that have ravaged the Horn of Africa. There are around 2 million landmines, some dating back to the Italian invasion by Mussolini in 1935. The government estimates that they will take another 20 years to clear. The survey found Tigray and Afar regions in northern Ethiopia bordering Eritrea, and the Somali region in the east bordering Somalia to be the worst affected. Tens of thousands of the mines were left over from the 1998-2000 war with Eritrea and after the 1977 Somali invasion under Siyad Barre. More than 30 types of mines have been used in Ethiopia, which has about 23,000 amputees, of whom 20 percent are thought to be landmine victims. NPA, which carried out the survey with the government’s Ethiopian Mine Action Office (EMAO), says landmines and UXO affect 1,492 communities in the country. EMAO is seeking US $19 million from the international community over the next three years to help speed up its mine-clearance efforts. The funding will also support landmine victims and a mine-risk education programme for 500,000 people. EMAO is looking for an additional two manual mine-clearance companies, three specialised dog teams, and seven rapid response teams. During its survey, the team visited every district in the country, comprising 4,500 villages and towns.