Mozambique sets five-year target to clear landmines

The Mozambican government set itself a new five-year target on Friday to remove all the landmines that still litter the country, 15 years after its long-running civil war.

Luis Mondlane, a senior official in the national demining institute, said the government would need about $10-million to fund a new programme to get rid of all unexploded ordnance by 2012 and was in talks with donors.

The government had previously set 2010 as its target to complete a massive demining programme, but has struggled for funding as the focus shifts to more recent conflict zones such as Angola and Afghanistan.

“The aim of the new plan is to be rid of all landmines within five years,” Mondlane told journalists.

“In order to meet this [$10-million] figure, the government is currently holding talks with its international partners,” he added.

Even though 15 years have passed since the end of a civil war that broke out in 1976 soon after the former Portuguese colony’s independence, the mines continue to maim or kill civilians on a regular basis.

Six children from the same family were killed in August when a civil war-era landmine exploded in the centre of the country.—Sapa-AFP