Lack of funds slows landmine removal in Kurdistan Region
A financial crisis that hit the Kurdistan Region five years ago badly affected the process of landmine clearance across the region, particularly in the border areas where millions of mines from a war three decades ago still take and threaten lives.
“Our work stopped because of not renewing the vehicles’ contracts,” Jamal Jalal, director-general of Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA) told Rudaw “We couldn’t start our work in the new year.”“The cause is that the finance ministry has put us on the backburner.” Jalal said.
Many mine removers known as deminers are employed on a temporary basis and lack of funds means they cannot continue removing landmines from areas that were once people’s farms.
Even with proper funds, says Mukhlis Sharif of the Erbil branch of IKMAA, it would still take decades to remove all the mines from one province alone.
“If the process goes like this, we may not clean all the landmines in Erbil for 50 years, because our teams are very few compared to the number of landmines.” Sharif explained. “We have only nine teams for all Erbil Province’s landmines.”
Reporting by Bakhtiyar Qadir
