ACT Alliance

After one and a half years of hard work, DanChurchAid (DCA)’s mine clearance teams in Angola have finished clearing a two-kilometer-long mine belt having removed and detonated almost 1,250 mines and dozens of unexploded ordnance along the way.

Yellow sticks stand in straight lines as long as the eye can see. Each stick marks the spot where a landmine has been removed.

The mines were placed with exactly 1.20 meter space between them in two parallel lines during Angola’s 27-year-long civil war that ended in 2002. DCA has been clearing mines in the eastern province of Moxico since 2004.

In May last year DCA started clearing a new part of the Alto Campo area, just outside the provincial capital of Luena. While inspecting and mapping the field, the demining team found the first six mines of what turned out to be a mine belt of almost two kilometers.

One and a half year and almost 1.250 mines later, the teams reached the end of the belt in late October this year.

The mine belt is the first that DCA has cleared in Alto Campo, DCA Programme and Operational Manager Fatmire Uka says.

“Mine belts have various tactical purposes in war, one of the most important being to protect a major defense position. This belt was laid by the government military as a protection against the rebels, who controlled large parts of the Moxico province during the conflict”, she says.

Running the risk looking for food

Moxico is the worst affected of Angola’s 18 provinces in terms of mines and unexploded ordnance contamination.

More than 50 percent of the inhabitants in Moxico fled during the war and have been returning throughout the past decade.

When they return to their villages, they have little knowledge about possible landmines, and unfortunately, a number of accidents occur. Educating people about the risk as well as clearing the fields are thus equally important.

Living conditions in Moxico are hard, however, and despite having received mine risk education many people still move into the contaminated areas to collect woods and food.

In January 2011, a man stepped on a mine along the mine belt that DCA was clearing, well aware that the area was heavily mined. He lost a leg and his genitals.

Systematic danger

Clearing the mine belt is, however, easier than clearing mines that are arbitrarily scattered all over the landscape, as is usually the case in Angola.

No maps of their positions have apparently survived the war. This makes it extremely difficult and tedious to clear mines in Moxico, Uka says. Yet, counting on the systematic pattern of the mine belt is also dangerous.

“Sometimes the mines have moved over time, for example if the soil has been soaked with rain. And sometimes the locals move mines when they find them. They pick them up and put them somewhere else, where they think that no one will step on them. That is extremely dangerous,” she says.

Mine Wolf speeds up operations

In 2009 DCA received a mine clearance machine called Mini Mine Wolf from the AP Moeller Foundation.

The Mine Wolf prepares the land and finds mines and unexploded ordnance. When the wolf has run over a piece of land, the manual clearance teams follow up manually.

One deminer can then clear 180 sq meters a day. Working without the wolf, each person can cover between 30–40 sq meters a day.

When DCA has cleared a piece of land, it is handed over to the national mine action authorities and to the local population.

More than 200 families have already built houses in Alto Campo on the land that DCA has cleared.

DCA will now continue with the rest of the Alto Campo mine field, and the work is expected to be finished at the end of 2012.

By Mille Lübbert Hansen

Our results

• A total of 1,250 mines  have been removed and destroyed in Alto Campo so far
• Most of the mines were anti-personnel mines, aimed at people. One anti-tank mine, meant for vehicles and machines, was found. Unexploded ordnance is all other kinds of explosive leftovers from war
• Since the operations started in Alto Campo  end of  2006, DCA has cleared 1,000,000 sq meters of land, equal to 137 football pitches
• The work in this area is expected to be completed by the end of 2012
• A large, but unknown number of mines still contaminate Angola’s fertile lands
• 37 people have become victims to mines in Alto Campo since 2002. Of these 15 have died.
• Two DCA deminers have experienced accidents while working. One lost a hand and another a finger. They are now employed in other positions within DCA.