Government's annual allocation for the expensive exercise has been reduced from Zd3 million in the early 80's to a paltry Zd100000, resulting in the army managing to clear only 10 percent of the over 700km stretch of affected areas. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that 119 million active mines are scattered in 71 countries, requiring the equivalent of Zd363 billion to remove, in what experts say under current conditions would take more than 1100 years. Gen Jamerson says the US Government, which is already assisting Mozambique, Namibia and Rwanda, will soon review its policy towards helping more African countries to rid them of the death mines, adding that Zimbabwe is a favourable candidate. It is estimated that each month 800 people are killed and 1200 maimed worldwide, while in Southern Africa, where five wars of liberation and three civil conflicts have been fought, at least 250,000 people have been killed by landmine explosions in the past 30 years. In northern Somalia, camel and goat herders are afraid to return to their grazing lands.
City dwellers fear returning to their homes.
The fields explode, the houses are booby-trapped. More likely, legs, ankles, feet are blown off. It added that one of the cruelest tactics of Siad Barre's forces was the deliberate mining of civilian homes. In a pastoral society where muscle power means survival, the loss of a limb can be particularly cruel. Data collected from hospitals in the main northern cities of Hargeisa, Barbera and Borama showed that 74.6 per cent of mine victims treated between February 1991 and February 1992 were children between five and 15.