Mozambique Declared Free of Landmines

Mozambique’s government declared the country free of landmines on September 17, putting an end to a two-decade venture to eliminate this threat. Halo Trust, the Scottish humanitarian organization that has taken the lead role in this lengthy operation, recently destroyed the last known land mine in the country.

"I have [the] honour to declare Mozambique as a country free of the threat of landmines," Foreign Affairs Minister Oldemiro Baloi said at a ceremony in the capital, Maputo.

Halo Trust, along with other demining agencies, initiated the campaign for landmine clearance in the 1990s. Since then, the Scottish organization has employed more than 1,600 Mozambicans and has used a variety of manual and mechanical methods to achieve its mission. The progress has been notable: Holy Trust operators have removed more than 171,000 mines—about 80% of the total—that had been buried during Mozambique’s civil war from 1977 to 1992. Likewise, the reduction of landmine-related accidents decreased from 600 per year in the early 1990s to just 11 in 2013.

Calvin Ruysen, Halo Trust’s regional director for Southern Africa, said clearance will allow farmers to increase productivity, workers to commute more safely and children to freely play on rural roads. Infrastructure development, easier access to gas and coal, and increases in tourism and foreign investment are some of the broader consequences that may result from the removal of landmines in Mozambique.

Mr. Ruysen emphasized that this is a “really brilliant” step for the country and ensured that it will have a great impact on the country.

“The impact, the effect, can be felt not only at the very local level but nationally, across whole regions,” he affirmed, referring to improvements that can finally occur in the Mozambican railway system as a result of the clearance.

Mozambique’s commitment to ending landmine presence since the signature of the Mine Ban Treaty in 1999 has been highlighted as an example for other mine-contaminated countries. According to Landmine Monitor, some other states with the highest mine-density are Cambodia, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. Moreover, Halo Trust and other organizations agree that much work needs to be done in Southeast Africa, especially in Zimbabwe, which houses a large amount of anti-personnel mines.