ANGOLA

The deadly inheritance of three decades of civil war

Because Angola has been in a permanent state of war for 30 years, different areas, at different times, have been poisoned with land mines. Apart from the relatively small areas cleared by humanitarian groups, in Angola the land around all the borders, all the cities and towns, on most roads, around all military complexes, airports, power lines, water ducts, water dams, bridges, water-ways, etc, is either mined or is suspected of being mined.

Add to that the sites of a large number of temporary military camps, as well as the mess left by the home defense, the refugee camps of the ANC, the SWAPO, UNITA, FRELIMA, FLEC, etc, and you begin to understand the scale of the problem.

There are also large mine infested areas in the South, left by Cubans and South-Africans who used extensive minefields to try to position themselves better for the greatest tank wars since WW2.

The situation is further complicated by mines that have been taken by the civilian population to "secure" private property (such as mango trees and precious crops. And complicated still further by a great number of mines that have been planted (especially by UNITA) to target civilians and provoke terror. These may be on well-used paths to markets, around schools, health posts, watering holes, churches, bus stops, public washing areas, etc.

A final consideration are those mines that have been washed from their original position (at bridge posts etc) during the rainy season.

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