Angola needs about $300 million to complete, by 2025, its program of clearing landmines in areas mined during the civil war that ravaged the country between 1975 and 2002. This was announced yesterday August 27 by Adriano Gonçalves, the head of the office of Exchange and Cooperation of the National Inter-sectoral Commission on Demining and Humanitarian Assistance (CNIDAH).

According to the official, Angola still has 1,220 areas affected by landmines and these mines are now mostly concentrated in the provinces of Cuando Cubango, Moxico, Cuanza Sul and Bie. “Angola is not a mine-free country yet, we have large mined areas with 105 million square meters affected,” said Adriano Gonçalves.

As a reminder, Angola is one of the countries with the most anti-personnel mines in the world. In 2007, there were still 3,600 mined areas in the country.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou