Angolan demining efforts are soon expected to mark another milestone, with the director-general of the National Mine Action Agency (ANAM) expecting to confirm two provinces free of mined areas later this year, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reports.
Leonardo Severino Sapalo told journalists that “the demining of known mined areas is practically complete” in Huambo and Benguela. The announcement came after a visit by a multi-country delegation of diplomats to see the work of British NGO the HALO Trust, which has been in Angola since 1994.
The visit was part of the delegation’s trip to the Lobito Corridor. Stretching around 1,300 kilometres from the Port of Lobito to the Zambian border, construction of the railway and economic corridor has involved the removal and destruction of 43,142 anti-personnel mines, 2,460 anti-tank mines, and 235,050 unexploded ordnances.
Despite clearing an area of over 74.76 million square metres, there are still at least 192 known minefields located along the Lobito Corridor in adjacent municipalities of Biè and Moxico provinces, according to the HALO Trust.
[See more: Grenade tragedy underscores Angola’s ongoing issues with unexploded ordnance]
Sapalo also noted there are 975 areas nationwide that still require demining, down from over 1,000 at the end of 2023, and significant funding is needed to ensure that national demining units have the logistical and technical capacity to intervene and eliminate these areas.
Demining one square metre costs about US$3.10 but with around 70 million square metres of known areas, that translates to nearly US$240 million. Sapalo said that, in addition to funds from the country’s General State Budget, international resources are being mobilised for the effort but it is possible that more mined areas may be discovered.
Nearly 40 years of conflict, first with Portugal then in a decades-long civil war, left Angola riddled with an estimated 9 to 20 million landmines. While around 5 million explosive devices had been cleared by this time last year, the country still has a long way to go to meet its obligations under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.
Signed during the civil war in 1997 and ratified just months after it ended in April 2002, the ban requires Angola to remove all mines within a decade. The latest extension sets the deadline for 31 December this year.
