COLOMBIA| HORN OF AFRICA | SOMALILAND |
Map  Somaliland is an unrecognized de facto independent state located in northwest Somalia in the Horn of Africa. Minelaying occurred during the 1964 and 1977 - 78 Ogaden wars, when minefields were laid along the Ethiopian border. This border was heavily mined, including along important access routes. Between 1981 and 1991, the Somali National Movement (SNM), a rebel army of mostly northern Somali following, waged an armed insurrection against the regime of Mohamed Said Barre, which saw indiscriminate use of landmines against the civilian population, their homes and farmlands. The most recent use of landmines in Somaliland took place between 1994 and 1995 when militias opposed to the regime of Somaliland President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal and loyalist forces fought fierce battles in Hargeisa (the capital) and areas south and east of Hargeisa. The capital Hargeisa was heavily mined around military bases, refugee camps, private houses and the airport. The war between Ethiopia and Somalia also left behind large amounts of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Somaliland. Thousands of items of UXO littered Hargeisa and other regional centers. Large perimeter anti-tank minebelts, which surround former military camps remain uncleared, as do some border minefields and suspect roads. Besides conducting clearance for humanitarian benefits, HALO is also addressing the problem of explosive security. HALO Survey and Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams have often come across evidence of explosives having been harvested from mines, in particular anti-tank mines and explosive ordnance, for illegal re-sale or re-use. The majority of mines found in Somaliland are plastic-bodied minimum metal mines. This combined with rocky laterized and metal contaminated ground and inconsistent depths at which the mines were laid, makes it difficult to find mines consistently using conventional metal detectors. The existence of mines and UXO in various areas of Somaliland threatens the lives and livelihoods of both static and nomadic populations. Many roads remain unused due to the threat of anti-tank mines and areas around locations that were previously army positions or military bases remain a serious threat to the local population. HALO continues to state that the only way to remove the impact that mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) have on a population in as short a time frame as possible is to put scale onto the problem. HALO’s program in Somaliland was established in 1999 and employs over 440 national staff members. HALO operates eight combined manual/ battle area clearance (BAC) teams, four survey/ explosive ordnance disposal teams, four double-shifted mechanical teams and one mines risk education (MRE) team. These are deployed across Somaliland from Awdal region in the north-west to Sool region in the east of the country. Since the start of 2007, HALO has been conducting a re-assessment to identify the remaining mine problem and the assets required to clear the high and medium priority tasks in a realistic time frame, to take Somaliland towards a 'mine impact free' state. In support of this, HALO is speeding up demining operations in Somaliland by increasing its manual and mechanical capacity and continues trialing advanced detectors using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technology that could potentially more than double clearance rates and halve the amount of time currently required for HALO to stay in Somaliland. Requirement for continued clearance There remains a clear requirement for continued support of humanitarian mineclearance operations to avoid casualties and so that the population of Somaliland is no longer impacted by the threat of mines and ERW. HALO Somaliland is currently supported by the Governments of Finland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (DFID) and is looking to expand further its capacity and donors to deal with the remaining threat as soon as possible and move further eastwards. |
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