US Edition
Think of Angola, and many – like me – may picture Princess Diana’s famous walk across a minefield in 1997, with the iconic image of her clad in blue protective gear. She was there to raise global awareness of the nightmare of landmines, a legacy of conflict which was killing and injuring thousands of people, many of whom were children.
Her clarion call for international action sparked a movement to bring the scourge of landmines to an end.
Alas, more than 25 years on, the situation in Angola remains just as dangerous. In 2022, two children were killed and a dozen more injured as they unknowingly stumbled upon an explosive device while playing in Moxico province.
They were some of over 100 Angolans who were killed or injured that year. This is the bloody legacy of landmines – a trail of broken families, shattered limbs, and destroyed livelihoods.
Angola is a stable, rapidly developing nation which has not seen conflict since the formal end of the Angolan Civil War in 2002, with much of the contamination from landmines laid in the 1980s; yet even today, after decades of work to remove them, the contamination of landmines left behind has the power to maim and kill.
According to Landmine Monitor, at least 58,000 people have been killed or injured by landmines since 2014 (almost certainly a massive underestimate, given difficulties in collecting data), with casualties rising significantly in places such as Yemen, Myanmar and – most strikingly of all – Ukraine.
Heartbreakingly, almost half of the casualties whose ages are known are children, as they – like the children in Angola – are most likely to be unaware of how to behave safely around landmines, and therefore are most at risk.
It is for these reasons that I am proud to announce close to £17 million of UK funding to two British demining organisations – the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and the HALO Trust – to carry out work in eight countries across Africa (including Angola) and South-East Asia until March 2025.
This follows £11.6 million that was announced last year for work in Afghanistan and Ukraine.
It is expected that this funding will benefit more than 50,000 people across the ten countries, while releasing almost 17 million square metres of land – adding to the 510 million square metres of land cleared and confirmed safe through UK funding since 2018.
Reflecting their status as leaders in the sector, much of this clearance has been accomplished by HALO and MAG.
By clearing land of landmines and other explosive remnants of war, that land is now safe for local communities to use for housing and farming, as well schools and hospitals – ultimately promoting economic development, restoring livelihoods in rural and marginalised areas, and increasing the production of local crops to strengthen food security.
In Pursat province, Cambodia, for instance, farmer Lao Ly had no option but to risk his life and farm on potentially dangerous land, despite the warnings of his neighbours. Now that his land has been cleared, he’s able to plant orange and banana trees whose proceeds will allow him to send his children to school.
In many cases, too, it is these ordinary people who have cleared the land that they can now use – demining organisations hire the vast majority of their staff from local communities, giving employment and empowerment in what is often a fragile post-conflict environment. Subsequently, clearance also assists the safe return of refugees and internally displaced people.
To help ensure that adults and children know how to behave safely around landmines and other explosive ordnance, teams from MAG and HALO will also reach more than half a million people with over 34,000 in-person workshops about the risks of explosive ordnance.
The funding announced today will bring the total amount committed by the UK under the Global Mine Action Programme since 2018 to over £171 million. Significantly, too, nearly all of the eight countries that will benefit from this new funding will see a rise in funding this year compared with the financial year of 2022/23.
Funding in South Sudan has been tripled, for instance, which will support the clearance of land along a highway between the capital Juba and the town of Nimule, allowing trade and safe travel between the two as well as safety for communities living along the highway.
The impact of UK action is clear to see. Mozambique was declared mine-free in 2015. Zimbabwe too is now nearing this goal, with ambitions to eradicate landmines within the country by 2025. As a founding signatory to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention in 1997, the UK will stand with them every step of the way.
I look forward to working with MAG and HALO towards the powerful vision of a mine-free world, creating safe and secure environments, where communities can live freely and without fear of the deadly threat of landmines.
- Andrew Mitchell is MP for Sutton Coldfield and Minister for Development and Africa
Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security
More than 25 years after Princess Diana went to Angola, the landmine threat is ever present
UK pledges £17m to two British demining organisations to carry out clearance work in eight countries across Africa and South-East Asia