The civil war between the FRELIMO government and RENAMO opposition resulted in mines being laid by both sides.
The government used anti-personnel mines to defend provincial and district towns, airstrips, key bridges, power supplies, railways and military posts - while RENAMO laid anti-vehicle mines to close the roads connecting towns and markets. Extensive minefields were laid around the Cahora Bassa Dam by Portuguese forces and along the Mozambique – Zimbabwe border by Rhodesian forces.
In the northern half of Mozambique all known minefields have been cleared - a total of 552 minefields containing 100,843 mines.
HALO concluded 14 years of mineclearance (as the sole operator for the majority of that time) in the northern half of Mozambique with a survey of every community in order to confirm that there were no known minefields remaining.
In 2007, HALO was asked to conduct a Baseline Assessment to quantify the remaining mines problem in the central and southern half of Mozambique. This was completed in October 2007. The findings showed 487 confirmed minefields remained with extensive minefields located in the area of the Cahora Bassa Dam and on the border with Zimbabwe. The extent of the remaining mines problem was despite expenditure on mineclearance in the central and southern half of Mozambique prior to 2007 having considerably exceeded that in the northern half of Mozambique. Further survey work by HALO since 2007 has taken the total to over 520 minefields.
In 2009, HALO conducted a more detailed survey of the border minefields from Mozambique to assist in determining which areas lay solely within Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, and which straddled the border.
The scale and impact of the remaining mines problem is high – it is not a residual, minor threat. It is a major development and human security problem that needs a professional, efficient and timely solution. A measure of the seriousness of the problem is that since starting clearance in the central and southern half of Mozambique in late 2007, HALO has found and destroyed over 22,000 landmines.
Landmines continue to hamper development at the micro and macro level, cause accidents and death, and inhibit the use of land for agriculture, grazing, construction, and safe access, whilst also causing a blockage to key national infrastructure and cross-border movement.
To clear the remaining minefields requires a combination of manual deminers and mechanical assets. HALO will be working on those minefields containing the highest mine numbers and representing some of the most technically challenging that remain for clearance.
HALO estimates that to reach the same state as the north HALO will require over 350 deminers and 7 mechanical assets deployed over the next 2 years within its area of operations in Maputo, Manica and Tete provinces.
HALO Mozambique needs to increase its demining capacity to 350 deminers and 7 mechanical assets to achieve an end state within its area of operations, and seeks support for 13 additional 9-men/women demining sections and additional machines - excavators, front-end loaders and screeners.
Anselmo joined HALO in 1997 to manage the program’s fleet of Land Rovers, trucks and plant machinery. In the last 15 years he has been responsible for the training of many mechanics and the maintenance of the HALO Mozambique fleet. He is originally from Zambizia and is married with eight children.
Geraldo first joined HALO in 1997 as a minefield supervisor in Niassa province, before being promoted to a survey role in 1999. In 2003 he moved to Nampula as a storeman and then became the location accountant. He returned to operations in 2007 as a survey supervisor for the Baseline Assessment and took on overall responsibility for survey in 2009. Geraldo has relocated with his wife and two children to Maputo, and is studying law at night school.
Jim was HALO Mozambique’s first employee, joining in 1993. He has been based in Maputo and represented HALO in the capital when the program was located in the North of the country. Before the program relocated, the Maputo office was based at his home for over ten years. Jim is married with six children and also runs a successful chicken farm.
Yuri joined HALO in August 2002 as Nagorno Karabakh’s data cell and mapping specialist. Following explosive ordnance and demining training, Yuri was rapidly promoted to become Nagorno Karabakh’s Operations Manager in February 2005. In 2011, Yuri was posted to Mozambique as the Maputo Location Manager. In 2012, Yuri spent half a year managing operations for HALO Somaliland, before returning to Mozambique in September to become Program Manager. Yuri is married with two children.
Profeta began working for HALO as a Team Leader in August 1994 in Zambezia in Northern Mozambique. Over the next 9 years, Profeta rose to become National Operations Officer and helped oversee the completion of HALO’s clearance in Northern Mozambique. During this period, Profeta was also deployed to Angola, Somaliland and Eritrea to train HALO staff. After a break from HALO, Profeta re-joined in 2011, undertook explosive ordnance refresher training in Afghanistan, and has now resumed his former position as Operations Officer, overseeing HALO’s clearance activities in Maputo, Manica and Tete provinces. Before working for HALO Profeta was an Officer in the Mozambican military and trained at Sandhurst.
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“Getting mines out of the ground, now”
© The HALO Trust 2013
