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Uganda: Landmines Reduce in Northern Uganda
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The Monitor (Kampala)
4 May 2008
Posted to the web 5 May 2008
James Eriku
Gulu
AVSI, an Italian non-governmental organisation which works mainly with victims of landmines in northern Uganda, has declared that landmines are no longer a threat in the region.
Northern Uganda is where the Uganda army and rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army have fought for almost two decades.
In a statement, the organisation said the biggest problem in the area is the abundance of other unexploded ordinance.
The organisation's Landmines Risks Education Officer, Ochan Ongom told journalists at Sun Set Hotel in Gulu town that a team of experts sent to northern Uganda to de-mine the area has removed not more than 30 landmines since the inception of the programme last year.
He said an assortment of explosives like grenades, rockets, missiles, cluster bombs, bullets and fuses among others have been recovered. "We do receive about five cases of suspected mines all over the region on daily basis but most of them have been discovered to be unexploded fuses, grenades, but not landmines as people suspect them to be," Mr Ongom said.
He said the weapons have killed 524 people and maimed thousands in the recent past. Statistics also show that there are 1,387 landmine survivors in Gulu and Amuru districts out of which about 700 are being supported by humanitarian organisations.
Mr Ongom, however, said there could still be thousands of unexploded weapons in the region particularly in the sub -counties of Atiak, Palaro, Agoro and Palabek.
Northern Uganda is suspected to have the highest number of disabled persons in Uganda who were maimed during the armed conflict.
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Uganda, which signed the Ottawa Convention to stop the use of landmines in 1997, has destroyed 6,432 landmines since 2003. About 1,000 are still in the government armories for training purposes. Landmines can stay in the ground or in any environment for more than 75 years without getting expired.
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