04 April 2008
In many countries, the deaths and injuries caused by war don't stop when the fighting ends. Landmines and other unexploded weapons can lie hidden in forests, farmland and buildings for years, waiting for victims to maim and kill. Sometimes, local people understand the deadly risk landmines pose in an area, but poverty forces them to take that risk and access the land. Other times, especially when displaced people are returning home, they are not aware of the threat until it is too late. Each year, another 20,000 people become victims of landmines - almost all of them civilians, and many of them children.
That is why the UK Government, through DFID, provides over £10 million per year in developing countries around the world to help mark and clear landmines, survey suspect areas, and educate people in dangerous locations of the risks they face. People in countries such as Cambodia, Angola, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan can move around more freely and safely thanks to DFID's work over the last 10 years.
But it's not just landmines that cause suffering in this way - other unexploded bombs can have a similar devastating effect. In particular, some types of cluster bomb are especially unreliable and can leave large numbers of unexploded bomblets scattered around villages and fields. Even with over £3 million in DFID support, it will take the UN, NGOs and the Lebanese Government over 2.5 years to clear cluster munitions left unexploded after the conflict in southern Lebanon in 2006. So, DFID is working alongside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Ministry of Defence to secure an international agreement to ban the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of those cluster bombs that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.
DFID's main partners in mine action are the NGOs Halo Trust and Mines Advisory Group.
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