59% of Iraqi areas planted with landmines cleared

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Minister of Environment, Nizar Amidi, announced on Monday that 59 percent of the areas contaminated with mines have been cleared.

Amidi confirmed that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani prioritizes issues related to the environment, adding that sufficient funds have been allocated in the federal budget to clear areas planted with landmines, according to the state news agency (INA).

“Iraq has cleared 59 percent of the areas contaminated with mines, and the remaining 41 percent represent more than 2,000 square kilometers,” Amidi said.

The Iraqi Environment Minister stressed that the ministry is eager to implement the strategy that meets Iraq’s goals with its national and international partners.

Last March, Amidi stressed the seriousness of the ministry, particularly the Directorate for Mine Action (DMA), to declare Iraq free of mines by 2028, in accordance with Iraq’s obligations towards the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, known informally as the Ottawa Treaty.

In October 2022, two Iraqi members of a team working for the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) were killed and a third was injured in an incident at an explosive ordnance clearance site at Shatt Al-Arab near the city of Basra.

According to a statement issued by the UNMAS last November, Iraq suffers from various types of contamination due to decades of war and conflicts, and these types of contamination are now threatening the lives and safety of Iraqis.

Iraq is the world’s most contaminated country with landmines, partly due to the mines laid by ISIS terrorists to defend the territory it once controlled over Iraq and Syria, according to Reuters.

Iraq was already heavily contaminated as a result of the 2003 invasion by the US-led coalition, the 1991 Gulf War, and the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq war.