Eritrea, a country of 3.5 million people, is infested with about two million mines and units of unexploded ordnance (UXO), Andebrhan Weldegiorgis, the commissioner for coordination with the UN peacekeeping mission, told the UN General Assembly in New York, on Wednesday. The commissioner, who was addressing the Assembly's 56th session, said "this translates to almost one land mine per person - one of the highest levels of contamination per capita in the world".

He said the whole of Eritrea had been infested by land mines during the 1961-91 war of liberation, and that the Eritrean humanitarian de-mining programme had cleared about half a million of them between 1991 and 1998. This achievement had, however, been significantly reversed during the recent war with Ethiopia.

With the generous assistance of the UN, NGOs and the donor community, Eritrea had taken enormous strides, within a very short time, in laying the foundations and building the capacity to address the problem of mines and UXOs afflicting whole country, he told the Assembly. He pointed out that mine clearance was dangerous work conducted in an often-hostile environment with lots of hazards to cope with and requiring considerable resources for training, equipment and logistics.

"Hence resource mobilisation and adequate funding are crucial to success." he said. Andebrhan told the Assembly that for Eritrea to win this war, "we need the continued support from our partners to provide us with the critical resources to wage this war against this deadly enemy".