Fikremariam Tesfaye
1 September 2008
Addis Ababa — The government of Germany donated 70 mine detectors worth 157,600 Euros to the Ethiopian Mine Action Office (EMAO) to support Ethiopia's ongoing efforts in clearing the dangerous land mines in the Afar, Somali and Tigray regional states.
Peter Fahrenholtz, Charge d'affairs of the Embassy of the Federal Government of Germany handed over diplomas to EMAO's trainees at the compound of the Embassy on Thursday.
During the handing over ceremony, Peter Fahrenholtz said that Germany suffered a lot from the mine incidents in the aftermath of the Second World War.
"We still find bombs dropped from bombers after 60 years during excavation work and we detonate them," he said adding "Mines are dangerous farmers can't plough a land infested with mines EMAO is doing a remarkable operation"
In Ethiopia between January and June 2008 EMAO successfully cleared 4.9 km2 of mine contaminated land which counts 84 % of the 2008 annual clearance target, and the land was handed over to the local communities for immediate productive use.
Activities undertaken included identifying and destroying 604 antipersonnel landmines, 193 anti-tank mines, and 14, 593 unexploded ordnance. Most of the released lands were used for farming and grazing contributing to improved food security of the regions, he added.
Along with the donation a 3 day technical training was given to 10 trainers on the effective use of the donated devices.
Germany's latest donation has raised the total contribution of mine detectors to Ethiopia over the year to 117, which accounts total sum of 257,000 Euros.
Ethiopia ranked among top ten most mine affected countries in the world according to EMAO.
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