Ndalatando - Angola needs, at least, another five years to demine the country entirely, within the scope of complying with the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Production, Storage and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines, to which it has been a signatory since 2008.
The information was provided by the deputy general director of the National Mine Action Agency (ANAM), Isabel Massela, when speaking about the Demining Situation in the province of Cuanza-Norte.
Isabel Massela's intervention took place at the Local Authorities Listening Workshop, within the scope of the Declaration of Free Communities of Known Mined Areas process, held on Wednesday, in Ndalatando.
According to the commitment of the “2014 Maputo Declaration”, she clarified, the States party to this convention envisage a world free from the scourge of mines by December 2025.
She predicts that, 15 months before the end of the deadline, Angola is still experiencing some delay in complying with its international obligations, relating to the Ottawa Convention, due to several issues.
Among these issues, she pointed out, the global economic and financial crisis, which also affected the country, the complexity of the type of mines and Angola climate.
Isabel Massela informed, thus, that Angola, in cooperation with national and international partners, will request the extension of this period for another 5 years.
She highlighted the need to continue actions against mines to fulfill Angola's obligations, as a State party to the Ottawa Convention.
The mine action process in Angola dates back to 1994 and gained greater momentum in 2002, after the end of the armed conflict.
According to Isabel Massela, research allowed the identification of 3,283 areas suspected of contamination with mines in the country.
The 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also known as the Ottawa Treaty, came into force in 1997 in Canada.
Around 164 states have joined the treaty, however, the great world powers, which are also manufacturers of landmines, are not part of it.
Among these nations are the United States, China and Russia, which are also the largest donors for mine action in Angola.
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