Latest news with #demining
Arab News
3 days ago
- General
- Arab News
Saudi project clears 971 explosive devices in Yemen
RIYADH: Members of Saudi Arabia's Project Masam removed 971 explosive devices from various regions of Yemen last week. The total included 891 unexploded ordnance, 78 anti-tank mines, one anti-personnel mine and one improvised explosive device, according to a recent report. Ousama Al-Gosaibi, the initiative's managing director, said that 506,437 mines have been cleared since the project began in 2018. The explosives were planted indiscriminately and posed a threat to civilians, including children, women and the elderly. The demining operations took place in Marib, Aden, Jouf, Shabwa, Taiz, Hodeidah, Lahij, Sanaa, Al-Bayda, Al-Dhale and Saada. Project Masam trains local demining engineers and provides them with modern equipment. It also offers support to Yemenis injured by the devices. Teams are tasked with clearing villages, roads and schools to facilitate the safe movement of civilians and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Photos of the giant rats leading land mine detection efforts in Cambodia
SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AP) — Rats may send some squealing, but in Cambodia, teams of the not-so-little critters have become indispensable in helping specialists detect land mines that have killed and maimed thousands in the Southeast Asian country. The African giant pouched rats, which can grow up to 45 centimeters (around 18 inches) and weigh up to 1.5 kilograms (more than 3 pounds), are on the front line, making their way nimbly across fields to signal to their handlers when they get a whiff of TNT, used in most land mines and explosive ordnance . 'While working with these rats, I have always found mines and they have never skipped a single one,' said Mott Sreymom, a rat handler at APOPO, a humanitarian demining group that trains and deploys rodent detection teams across the world. 'I really trust these mine detection rats," Mott told The Associated Press while on her lunch break after working on a land mine field in the province of Siem Reap. After three decades of conflict in the previous century, remnants of war littered approximately 4,500 square kilometers (about 1,737 square miles) of Cambodian land, according to a survey by the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) in 2004. This affected all 25 Cambodian provinces and nearly half of the country's 14,000 villages. As of 2018, CMAA reported 1,970 square kilometers (760 square miles) remain uncleared. The rats have a keen sense of smell, making them a favorite at APOPO, which also employs land mine-detecting dog teams. 'Dogs and rats are better compared to other animals because they are trainable,' said Alberto Zacarias, a field supervisor of APOPO's technical survey dog teams, adding that they are also friendly and easily learn commands. Since demining officially began in Cambodia in 1992, more than 1.1 million mines have been cleared, as well as approximately 2.9 million other explosive remnants of war, according to a 2022 government demining progress report. And the African giant pouched rats are doing their part. 'We work with them almost daily, so we get closer,' Mott said. 'They are very friendly and they don't move around and get scared. They are like family.'
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Prince Harry is in Angola to raise awareness for land mine clearing, repeating Diana's 1997 trip
Diana, Princess of Wales, left, uses a remote switch to trigger the detonation of some explosive ordinance dug up by mine sweepers in Huambo, central Angola, Jan. 15, 1997. (AP Photo/Giovanni Diffidenti, File) CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Prince Harry visited the African nation of Angola on Tuesday with a land mine clearing charity, repeating a famous trip his mother made in 1997. Harry, the Duke of Sussex, met with Angolan President João Lourenço on Tuesday at the start of his trip, according to a statement from the Halo Trust, an organization that works to clear land mines from old warzones. Princess Diana visited Angola with the Halo Trust in January 1997, just seven months before she was killed in a Paris car crash. Diana was famously photographed on that trip wearing protective equipment and walking through an active minefield during a break in fighting in Angola's long civil war. Her advocacy helped mobilize support for a treaty banning land mines later that year. This is not the first time Harry has followed in his mother's footsteps by raising awareness for the Halo Trust's work. He also visited the southern African country in 2019 for a land mine clearing project. British media reported that Harry traveled to Angola this week without his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Halo Trust CEO James Cowan said in a statement Tuesday that he and Harry met with Lourenço to discuss continued demining efforts in Angola and thanked the president for his support for that work. Angola was torn apart by a 27-year civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 2002, with some brief and fragile periods of peace in between. The Halo Trust says there are estimates that around 80,000 Angolans have been killed or injured by land mines during and after the war, although there are no exact figures. The organization says just over 1,000 minefields covering an estimated 67 square kilometers (26 square miles) still needed to be cleared at the end of 2024. Angola had set itself a goal to be land mine-free by 2025. Gerald Imray, The Associated Press
The Independent
16-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Duke of Sussex visits Angola in support of landmine clearance charity
The Duke of Sussex has visited Angola and attended a discussion with the country's president on removing landmines, a charity he is patron of has said. Landmine clearance charity the Halo Trust said that during the meeting President Joao Lourenco 'expressed his intention to continue to support our work'. In 2019, Harry donned body armour and a protective visor while setting off a controlled explosion in a partially cleared minefield similar to one visited by his mother Diana, Princess of Wales. He was highlighting the ongoing threat of the munitions in Angola, the same nation his mother visited in 1997 to urge the world to ban the weapons. Just months before she died in a car crash, Diana, wearing a protective visor and vest, walked through a minefield being cleared by the Halo Trust in the south-west African country. James Cowan, chief executive of the charity, said: 'It was an honour to have an audience with His Excellency President Lourenco today alongside Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex to discuss Halo's continued demining efforts in Angola. 'We thanked him for his extraordinary dedication to and investment in the vision of a mine-free country, and he expressed his intention to continue to support our work with a further significant contract for the next three years. 'Our partnership is strengthened and renewed, and we are grateful to President Lourenco for his leadership on this critical issue.' During his 2019 trip, the Duke of Sussex delivered a call to action to help rid the world of landmines. He said Angola's continued problem with the buried munitions would likely have been solved if his mother had lived. Diana spoke out against the sale and use of landmines and famously called for an international ban on them during her 1997 trip. She strode through a cleared path in a Huambo minefield, and the images of her in body armour and a mask gave the anti-landmine campaign global recognition.
South China Morning Post
16-07-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
Rat-ical solution: the giant pouched rodents saving lives in Cambodia's minefields
Rats may send some squealing, but in Cambodia , teams of the not-so-little critters have become indispensable in helping specialists detect landmines that have killed and maimed thousands in the Southeast Asian country. The African giant pouched rats, which can grow up to 45cm (18 inches) and weigh up to 1.5kg (3.3 pounds), are on the front line, making their way nimbly across fields to signal to their handlers when they get a whiff of TNT, used in most landmines and explosive ordnance. 'While working with these rats, I have always found mines, and they have never skipped a single one,' said Mott Sreymom, a rat handler at APOPO, a humanitarian demining group that trains and deploys rodent detection teams across the world. 'I really trust these mine detection rats,' Mott said from near a landmine field in the province of Siem Reap. Mott Sreymom, a rat handler with a humanitarian demining organisation applies sunblock to an African giant pouched rat in preparation for a day of demining in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Photo: AP Following three decades of conflict in the last century, remnants of war continue to affect approximately 4,500 square km (1,737 square miles) of land in Cambodia, according to a 2004 survey by the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA). This issue impacts all 25 provinces in Cambodia and nearly half of the country's 14,000 villages.
