49,230 remnants of war discovered in 19 years
From the year 2000 to 2019, a total of 49,230 remnants of war have been discovered during operations conducted across the country, a government official recently stated.
The Ministry of Information, Communication, and Technology, Executive Director, Mbeuta Ua-Ndjarakana, said this in a statement following a recent incident that occurred on Sunday, where a 69-year-old man was killed by a land mine explosion in the Omusati region.
Ua-Ndjarakana said for the past 10 years, 14 people have been killed, while 41 have been injured by UXOs.
“In all these incidents including that of Sunday, experts were deployed to investigate the area for further detection of UXOs, if any and the detonation thereof,” he said.
According to him the government has acknowledged that unexploded ordnance (UXOs) and landmines remain a concern in the country, particularly in the northern parts of the country as well as former war zones.
“It should, therefore, be noted that considerable progress has been made in clearing minefields and a large number of UXOs, he said.
Meanwhile he said the government through the Nampol will continue to roll out educational campaigns on UXOs and landmine campaigns to prevent unnecessary loss of lives.
“The ‘Don’t Touch It Report It campaign will continue to create awareness to educate the public,” he said while urging the public to report situations that might involve landmines.
Ua-Ndjarakana said after independence, Namibia has effectively carried out various de-mining operations consisting of the Namibia Defense Force and the Namibia Police in various areas.
In 1995 an MoU was signed by the Namibian and USA governments to assist in the clearance of landmines and UXOs, he added.
Caption: A trained personnel attempts to remove some of the dangerous post-war land mines (Photograph courtesy of https://www.defenceweb.co.za/)
