Rats in Action to clear gaza province

APOPO has been in Mozambique since 2003, engaged in the development of a low-cost and efficient mine detection methodology. The aim has been to facilitate the clearance of landmines and the reduction of landmine victims, while reducing the cost of these activities to a level where they can be affordable for the countries that need them, rather than countries having to rely on foreign aid or donor support to fund the necessary work.

Following the training and experience acquired while working with Menschen gegen Minen (MgM), and Norwegian People's Aid (NPA), the first group of MDRs were tested and licensed by the National Demining Institute (IND) and acknowledged as an alternative landmine and un-exploded ordnance (UXO) detection tool by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICDH)

Accreditation of the MDRs and their acknowledgement as an instrument for mine and UXO detection resulted in APOPO entering into operational agreements with other demining operators, with an aim to apply the methodology in real minefield situations. These agreements resulted in APOPO working with Accelerated Demining Programme (PAD) and Handicap International (HI) Demining Programme.

While working with these operational partners, APOPO had the advantage and opportunity to acquire experience on the use of other demining tools such as manual and mechanical.

It was on the basis of these experiences acquired from other demining operators, as well as studies undertaken by APOPO on the development of a combined tool methodology, that APOPO was confident that it could stand independently from other agencies. Since 2006 APOPO has been a fully operational mine action programme, which was tasked in 2008 as the sole operator for continuing the clearance of Gaza Province in Mozambique.

Mozambique mine history

Landmines were laid in Mozambique during two distinct phases of conflict:

• Between 1964 and 1974, when large barrier and defensive minefields were laid during the war for independence;
• Between 1977 and 1992, during the civil war between Renamo and Frelimo.

The result of these two phases of conflict left anti-personnel mines buried in all ten provinces of Mozambique, as well as many kilometres of roads being disrupted due to the presence of anti-vehicle mines.

Originally the level of contamination in Mozambique was unknown, although the impacts on some communities were serious, with high death and injury rates, and the destruction of social and economic infrastructure. Today, four northern provinces have been cleared, representing 51% of the total land requiring clearance. The remaining mined areas could possibly be cleared within five years (up to 2014) using the experience gained thus far.

In 2007 and 2008, a Baseline Assessment of the remaining suspected hazardous areas was conducted by the HALO Trust in six central and southern provinces. This considerably reduced the inconsistency of existing data and provided estimates of time and costs to address the remaining problem. The survey indicated that all six provinces are contaminated, with approximately 12,164,401 square metres of confirmed mined areas in 541 sites. In addition, there remain 33 known sites along roads. However, borders with neighbouring countries were not surveyed, and are also known to contain hazardous areas.

Gaza Province & APOPO clearance plan

Gaza Province is one of ten provinces in Mozambique. It is subdivided into 11 districts, nine of which have confirmed mined areas within them.

From the Baseline Survey, there remain 16 confirmed minefields and eight mined roads in the Gaza Province. Though new mined areas are still being reported, the Mine Free District Evaluation will ensure that all remaining known mined areas are included in the clearance plan, and that once APOPO has finished with a district no known mined areas will remain.

Confirmed mined areas in the Gaza Province

The APOPO mine-clearance programme is designed to clear all known remaining minefields in Gaza Province by 2014, in accordance with Mozambique’s mine-ban treaty extension request goal. The programme incorporates the District-by-District approach, ensuring that each district has undergone a ‘Mine-Free District Evaluation’ before being declared clear. The objective of this evaluation is to root out any remaining suspected area, or unexploded ordnance, in each district where clearance operations took place. It aims to verify and document that all communities, from the lowest level, in all districts, are confident to state that there are no known remaining areas containing landmines.

The APOPO mine-clearance programme utilises Mine Detection Rats (MDR) in conjunction with Ground Preparation Vehicles (GPV) and Manual Deminers.

The armoured GPVs clear vegetation from the area, allowing the Manual Deminers to clear safe lanes and prepare boxed areas for the MDRs to search.

The indications from the MDRs are then followed up by Manual Deminers, who will also remove and neutralize the mines.

All areas initially undergo an extensive Non-technical Survey, which leads to either the release of land, or further Technical Surveys. This ensures efficient use of funds and a coordinated allocation of resources.

After deployment of assets to a task, the survey team continues work on the Mine-Free District Evaluation.

APOPO clearance plan:

Links to Mozambique mine action and useful knowledge centres