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, FNLA, 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.
An annual challenge: The race against the rainy season
Angola covers 1,246,700 sq. km, which is around three and a half times the size of Germany. The former Portuguese colony (until 1975) is in the tropics. The rainy season in the North lasts from October to May and in the South from November until March. The rains divide into a small deluge in October and November and a large one in March and April.
The annual rainfall at the coast fluctuates between 340 mm in Luanda and 50 mm in the Angolian part of the desert Namib in the South. In the somewhat cooler highland the rainfall decreases from the north (1,500 mm) to the south (750 mm). In practical terms this means that in the rainy season the flat parts turn into seas of muddy water and the tropical rain forest turns to muddy mountains. In huge parts of the country all road traffic stops and the population suffers from collective malaria. Nothing dries and we can watch our demining gear grow mold. Electronic equipment stops working and all demining operations have to stop because, according to the safety standards, it would not be possible to evacuate a casualty quickly during an emergency.
In the rainy season, the 2 hour drive from headquarters to the operational field of Bengo can easily turn into days in the mud.
The end of fear
The population of Angola has, through slavery, Portuguese colonial oppression, and through almost 30 years of civil war, been victimized for centuries. They have been the innocent victims in games played for wealth, power and ideologies – and in their continued fight for survival they need our help. If these people are to ever have a life of peace and self-determination, the mine terror must first end.
In almost all areas of Angola, mine clearance is necessary either as emergency-aid or as part of a social and economic re-structuring program. This is true today, and will be for years to come. MgM and a few other international aid organizations have risen to the challenge, recognising a humanitarian obligation to clear the way towards a peaceful future for the next generation in Angola.
Only the first steps have been taken – but they may well have been the hardest. Help us to find out.
