One-third of Iraq's landmine-contaminated areas remain to be cleared

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Mine-removal teams in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have cleared 4,540 of the 6,600 square-kilometers of areas with landmines since 2003 in joint efforts between Baghdad and Erbil, according to the Iraqi mine directorate.

Mustafa Hameed, head of media at the Iraqi Directorate for Mine Action (DMA), told Rudaw on Sunday that work is underway to clear nearly 450 square-kilometers across Iraq. 

“Basra, Diyala, Babil, and Anbar provinces have the highest land areas covered by mines,” Hameed said.

The Iraqi DMA and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Mine Action Agency (IKMAA) have been working together since they signed a memorandum of understanding last year, outlining their cooperation and mutual technical support until 2028.

IKMAA had operated in Kirkuk before October 16, 2017, when Iraqi forces expelled Kurdish security forces and re-established federal control. Since then, the Iraqi DMA has led demining in the province.

IKMAA media director Lezma Fuad Sabir told Rudaw last December that 257 square-kilometers of contaminated land remain in the Kurdistan Region, where clearing operations began in 1992 to clear 776 square-kilometers of mines.

In August 2023, IKMAA reported that from 2019 to 2023, they had cleared more than five million square-meters across Duhok, Erbil, Sulaimani, and Halabja provinces. The agency cleared over two million square-meters in 2019, around 250,000 square meters in 2020, about 700,000 square meters in 2021, and more than two million square meters in 2022.

The Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a non-governmental organization that works globally to clear landmines, reported that they had de-mined 5,830,532 square meters in Iraq in 2023 alone.

Iraq and the Kurdistan Region suffer from the widespread presence of landmines, a legacy of the Iran-Iraq war, the 1991 Gulf War, the 2003 US-led invasion, and the Islamic State’s (ISIS) occupation from 2014 to 2016. Vast areas of the country still need to be cleared for the safety of its people. 

 

Malik Mohammed contributed to this report.