LANDMINES IN SOMALILAND

 

       Prepared for the Landmine Monitor

Ahmed H. Esa, Ph.D.

 

The Institute for Practical Research & Training

Hargeisa

Executive Summary

 

    After more than two decades of warfare, the 176,000 Sq. Km territory of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland is today heavily mined.  Systematic surveys started last year have not been completed. Data compiled by the National Demining Agency (NDA) of Somaliland and the UNDP-affiliated Somali Mine Action Center (SMAC) in Hargeisa, suggest that there are 28 mined roads and 63 confirmed and 17 suspected mine fields in Somaliland[1],[2],[3]. 

 

    Somaliland is one of the poorest countries in the world and landmine victims face enormous difficulties reaching health care facilities or receiving care from the few poorly equipped and inadequately staffed hospitals.  Two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provide some assistance with mobility devices and physical therapy, but victims receive no other assistance.  Landmine casualties have diminished over the past several years as people have started to avoid mined areas.  No new mines have been used since the cessation of the last internal conflict in 1995, but the Somaliland national army and some militias have stocks of landmines.

 

    Somaliland’s internationally unrecognized government cannot sign the MBT, but has expressed its intention to abide by all provisions of the mine Ban Treaty (MBT) and its willingness to sign the treaty when it becomes possible to do so[4]. On March 1 1999, on the occasion of the entry into force of the MBT, the Somaliland House of Representatives passed a resolution urging the government to unilateral ban landmines[5].  In a meeting with LM and representatives of the ICBL, the President of Somaliland indicated his desire to see the parliamentary resolution become law[6], so far however that has not happened.

   Over the past year, Somaliland has attracted significant donor attention.

 

    January 20, 1999, the Danish Demining Group (DDG)[7] announced that it obtained four million Kroner from the government of Denmark.  DDG started a demining project in Somaliland in the spring of 1999.

    The United States Department of State has also started funding a multi-year demining program implemented by HALO TRUST and the German government is funding the Santa Barbara Foundation to start a mine clearance project in Somaliland.  

 

    In addition, the US State Department and the European Union (EU) are also funding Care International to perform level 1 and level 2 surveys in Somaliland.

1.0 Politics and Geography:

     Soon after the fall of the of the Siyad Barre dictatorship of the Somali Democratic Republic in 1991, Somaliland, which comprised the northern five regions of united Somalia, proclaimed its independence.  Somaliland, which borders on Ethiopia to the south, Djibouti to the west, the northeastern regions of the former Somali Democratic Republic to the east, and the Gulf of Aden to the north, claims the same territory that was until 1960 ruled by the United Kingdom as the British Protectorate of Somaliland.  Somaliland joined with the former Italian colony of Somalia after both received independence in 1960[8].  Today, Somaliland remains a de facto state thus far unrecognized by other countries.  For all practical purposes, Somaliland functions as a separate and independent country.  It has a bicameral parliament, and an elected president.  Twice in the past eight years, Somaliland has peacefully changed its governing leadership.  It maintains officially recognized liaison offices in neighboring countries such as Djibouti and Ethiopia and will soon open a Commercial Relations Office in Yemen[9].

 

2.0 History of Landmines in Somaliland

 

The landmine problem in Somaliland is the result of over two decades of warfare:

¨                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Between 1977 and 1978, The Somali Democratic Republic, which then had the third largest army in sub-Saharan Africa, went to war with neighboring Ethiopia over a longstanding territorial dispute.  The war was heavily contested in the frontier area between northern Somalia (now Somaliland) and Ethiopia and the corridor between the Ethiopian city of Dire-Dawa and the border.  Both the Somali army of Maj. Gen. Mohamed Siyad Barre and Ethiopian troops of the Mengistu regime heavily mined frontlines, perimeters surrounding military installations and important access routes.

¨                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The war between Ethiopia and Somalia also left behind large amounts of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Somaliland. Sixty armed and eighty unarmed Russian SAM3, in various stages of deterioration, are scattered about a former military base outside of Berbera airport and in a farm on the outskirts of Hargeisa.  Another thirty-five short-range sea-to-sea marine missiles are in a former Technical Regiment Base near Berbera port lighthouse.  There are also large piles of UXOs in Addadley and Dararweine, former camps of the 12^th mechanized division of the Somali Army.  Unguarded, these pose a serious hazard, especially to young children[10]^,[11].

¨                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      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 Siad Barre.  On May 27, 1988, the conflict between the SNM and the Somali army intensified to a full-scale war.  The Somali army, fearing that the population was sympathetic to the cause of the rebels, embarked on a scorched earth strategy.  Nearly one million civilians were forced out of northern Somalia into refugee camps in northeastern Ethiopia[12].  Numerous reports by human rights organizations and others describe the indiscriminate use of landmines by the Somali army against the civilian population and their homes, farmland, and water reservoirs[13].  In particular, the army targeted the then regional capital of Hargeisa.  Perhaps as many as 100,000 landmines were placed in Hargeisa by the army, around military bases, refugee camps, private homes, and the airport[14].  SNM combatants also used landmines during this civil war.  Neither the SNM nor the army of Siyad Barre used landmines systematically.

¨                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The most recent use of landmines in Somaliland took place between 1994 and 1995.  Militias opposed to the regime of Somaliland President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal and loyalist forces fought fierce battles in Hargeisa (now Somaliland’s capital) and areas south and east of Hargeisa.  Landmines were used extensively in this civil war.  The two sides have now reconciled.  However, landmines planted during this period are making life very difficult in Burao and the surrounding region

 

     It is difficult to estimate the number of landmines used in these three phases.  Most studies, however, put the number of landmines in Somalia at 1.2 to 2 million.  The U.S. Department of States’1998 estimate is 1 million landmines in all of Somalia[15].  The United Nations Development Program, which currently operates the Somali Civil Protection Program and a demining project in Somaliland, indicates that between 400,000 and 800,000 landmines were placed in Somaliland soil during the 1988-1991 periods[16].  At least twenty-four types of antipersonnel landmines from 10 countries have been identified in Somaliland.  The 10 countries of origin are: Belgium, Pakistan, China, the United States, Ex-Czechoslovakia, Former People’s Republic of Germany, Egypt and the former Soviet Union, United Kingdom and Italy[17]. 

 

     In 1992, the U.S. Department of State described the landmine problem in northern Somalia (Somaliland) as a “very serious problem”[18] and that of the rest of the country as a general problem.  In 1991 the ICRC estimated Somaliland to have one amputee for every 652 persons, making it the third most severely mine-affected area.  Physicians for Human Rights in a report published in 1992, also conservatively estimated that there were then 1500 and 2000 landmine amputees in Somaliland. The population of Somaliland at the time of the PHR report was estimated at about 1 million, indicating, therefore, that there was one amputee for every 666 residents.  In this period, 60 mine victims were being brought to the main Hargeisa Group Hospital alone every month[19]. 

     Mine-related casualties have considerably subsided over the past several years as people become more aware and avoid problem zones.  Moreover, nomads and local communities especially in the frontier areas have often hired freelance deminers to demine areas they knew had landmines.  In April of 1998, doctors in Berbera Hospital indicated that on the average they were treating victims from one mine accident every month.  Most of the victims in Berbera were from the heavily mined city of Burao, which is about two hours driving distance from Berbera[20].  However, landmine threat is one of the major obstacles hindering large numbers of people from returning to their homes or farm or pastoral lands.  More than 70,000 former residents of Burao, the second largest Somaliland City, have not returned and live in a makeshift camp on the eastern outskirts[21].  Limited demining by a UNDP Somalia Civil Protection Project has now enabled some sections to be repopulated and the reopening of important public facilities such as the airport, the bank, a few schools and a number of main streets.

 

3.0 Banning Antipersonnel Landmines

3.1 Mine Ban Treaty

     The self-declared Republic of Somaliland cannot become a signatory of the MBT until it receives international recognition as a separate state.  Nevertheless, on the occasion of the signing ceremony of the MBT in Ottawa, the President of Somaliland, Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, wrote a letter to Lloyd Axoworthy, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs indicating that Somaliland was willing to sign the MBT (see annex I).  In his letter, Mr. Egal stated “We would be grateful to be accepted as participants in the conference and to sign the treaty banning landmines as an autonomous territory in full control of its destiny and the management of its affairs…” Somaliland authorities give every indication that they are willing to unilaterally observe the MBT and all of its requirements, including the expeditious destruction of landmine stocks of its national army.

     

     On March 1, 1999, the Somaliland House of Representatives, passed an amended version of the NDA policy that in Article 1 decrees:

 

     “The State shall undertake to destroy or ensure the destruction of all stockpiled antipersonnel mines it owns or posses, or that are under its jurisdiction or control, as soon as possible”[22].

 

     In its preamble to the March 1 resolution the House of Representatives recalls the Ottawa Declaration of 5 October 1996 and the Brussels Declaration of June 27, 1997 urging the international community to negotiate an international legally binding agreement prohibiting the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of antipersonnel mines.

     The government has passed not other legislation and the above parliamentary resolution has not become law.

 

3.2 Other Mine Treaties

 

     Somaliland has not unilaterally agreed to abide by any other treaty related to landmines.

 

3.3    Somaliland Campaign to Ban Landmines

 

     Until recently there was no organized campaign to ban landmines in Somaliland.  NGOs or concerned individuals active in the victim assistance or mine awareness arenas often wrote advocacy papers or undertook research on the landmine problem in Somaliland[23]. On August 26, 1998, SOYAAL, the Somaliland Veterans Association issued a statement at the conclusion of its 2^nd General Congress calling on the government of Somaliland to ban all landmines.  SOYAAL’S statement in part read

“ SOYAAL calls on the Somaliland government and the peoples and governments of this planet to prohibit the production, commercialization and exploitation of all types of mines… ”[24].

     In January the Somaliland Coalition against Landmines (SCAL) was formed.  The new coalition is composed of SOYAAL, the Somaliland Red Crescent Society, The Somaliland Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SORRA), and the Institute for Practical Research (IPR).  IPR acts as the secretariat for SCAL[25].

     SCAL organized a workshop on the menace of landmines in the horn of Africa, November 23-24.  During the workshop, the Chairman of the Guurti, the upper house of parliament, affirmed his community’s willingness to cooperate with international organizations on landmines.  This affirmation was echoed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives speaking during the opening session of the workshop[26].

 

3.4/3.5 Transfer/Stockpiling and Destruction

 

     The Ministry of Defense of Somaliland claims that the national army has not purchased or transferred any landmines, but admits that they have stocks inherited from the Somali army or various demobilized militias[27].  The government has not programmed the destruction of its landmine stocks[28].

 

     Somaliland does not appear to be a transit point for landmines.

Demining and UXO Eradication

 

4.0             Background

 

     The gravity of the landmine situation became apparent in 1991 soon after the fall of Siyad Barre as large numbers of residents returned to their homes in Hargeisa.  Mines were found everywhere in Hargeisa and casualties quickly mounted.  In 1991, the U.S. State Department’s Office of Refugee Programs funded a proposal by Medecins Sans Frontiers of Belgium to start a demining program in Hargeisa.  The project was later expanded with further input from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  UNHCR was responsible for the care of nearly 800,000 former residents of Somaliland as refugees in northeastern Ethiopia. Rimfire, a British firm, was contracted to start demining in and around the city of Hargeisa.  According to some reports, Rimfire’s demining program had serious organizational and technical shortcomings.  Some reports indicate that more than thirty of its local deminers were killed. However, Rimfire’s program and parallel local efforts resulted in the removal of 21,000 from Hargeisa before Rimfire closed its project in early 1994[29]^,[30].

 

     The early demining by local teams[31] and Rimfire enabled the re-population of the city of Hargeisa, whose residents now number an estimated population of 250,000 to 300,000.  Mine explosions are now rare in Hargeisa.  However, there are a number of mine fields in its vicinity.

 

     Between 1994-95 an internal conflict in Somaliland made humanitarian demining difficult, and no new programs were initiated.  In fact, new mines were laid in the contested areas.  As described previously, most severely affected by these new mines is the central city of Burao, which had been the scene of heavy fighting. 

 

4.1             Funding

 

     Between 1991 and 1993 the United States Department of State and later the United Nations Funded a commercial demining project in Somaliland.

     In 1998 the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) spent $202,000 on a training and assessment project by Mine-Tech of Zimbabwe (see below).

     On 20 January 1999, the Danish Foreign Ministry awarded 4 million Kroner (approximately U$600,00) to the Danish Demining Group (see below).  During a meeting on March 5, 1998 in Copenhagen, DGG indicated that the funds were for a pilot project that may be expanded in the future[32].

     In 1998, Care International received $343,817 from the US Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) to start a level II survey in Somaliland and to support NDA and SMAC capacity building[33].  Care’s project was slated to start on March 1, 1999.

 

     In 1999, the US State Department started funding HALO TRUST to start a multi-year demining program in Somaliland.  The first year was funded at a level of $ 1.250 million, while the budget for the second year is expected to be approximately $1.9 million[34].  Approximately $250,000 of HALO TRUSTS initial funding was earmarked for capacity building of the NDA.  In addition the British Ministry of Defense has donated four front loaders and four bulldozers to HALO for use in Somaliland[35].

     The Santa Barbara Foundation with funding from the German Government and foundation support is under taking a $500,000 demining project in the Gabiley district west of Hargeisa.

     Both the United States Department of State and the European Union are also funding a Care International program of surveys and mine awareness campaigns.  The Care program, funded at a level of US$600,000 for year 2000 is contracted to Mine Tech Zimbabwe.

     The Somali Mine Action Center (SMAC) managed by The Somali Civil Protection Program of UNDP is also spending US$ 400,000 for mine action, mine action coordination and mine action policy formulation[36].  SMAC is currently negotiating with the donors for further funding of US$ 4.25 million for comprehensive level I and Level II surveys and mine clearance projects in Awdal and Togdheer regions and the clearance of missiles and bombs from around Hargeisa and Berbera.

       

 

4.2             Mine-Survey/Assessment

 

     In 1997, the Somaliland government constituted a National Demining Agency (NDA) to coordinate all demining, mine awareness and victim assistance programs by the government and national and international NGOs.  At about the same time, The United Nations Development Program established a Somali Mine Action Center (SMAC) to coordinate its landmine activities in Somaliland and began a limited training and demining program in Burao City.  The UNDP program also started compiling field data for a Phase I Study.

 

     According to SMAC, There are 28 mined roads in Somaliland.  Most roads in Somaliland are unpaved.  The only exception is one major route that connects several of the major towns and cities.  Consequently, it had been relatively easy to block roads with landmines.  There have been several mine incidents on the coastal road between the port city of Berbera and neighboring Djibouti, and a section of this road just east of Berbera has at least one minefield of undetermined size.  Sections of the regular Djibouti-Jidhi-Borama road are also mined and traffic has been diverted into alternate routes for the past eight years.  The regular unpaved road between the largest towns of Somaliland, Burao and Hargeisa has been abandoned, in part due o landmine threat.

 

     There are also more than 80 minefields in Somaliland.  Sixty-three of these fields have been confirmed by SMAC.  The majority of mine fields are found near the Ethiopian/Somaliland border[37].  These minefields were designed to protect the army of Siyad Barre’s regime from SNM incursions during the 1988-90 conflicts.  Somaliland is a pastoral society and the frontier area is the most important grazing area for Somaliland livestock.  Each season, tens of thousands of nomads and their herds cross the border in search of water and pasture.  These nomads are extremely vulnerable as they travel on foot and often in large numbers.  There are no paved roads in the area and no hospitals or health care centers.  No systematic demining has taken place in this frontier area.

4.5                                                                                                                                                                                          Mine Clearance/Current

 

     In 1998, UNDP funded a three-month commercial demining project to begin the demining of Burao. Mine Tech of Zimbabwe was contracted to do a feasibility study using previously trained Somali deminers.  Mine Tech trained Somali deminers (63), two mine detection dogs and expatriate technical advisors, have now cleared approximately 73,000 Sq. meters of Burao removing 107 antipersonnel mines, 15 anti tank mines and 63 UXOs at a cost of $2.75 per square meter and a total cost of US $202,000.  Under a separate contract from HABITAT, the team also cleared a 1.5 km road leading to the water reservoir of nearby Sheikh town.

 

     On January 20, 1999, the Danish Demining Group (DGG)[38] announced that it would begin a demining project in Somaliland in the spring of 1999.  DGG received a grant of 4 million Kroner from the Danish Foreign Ministry for a demining, detonation of UXOs and victim assistance.  According to press reports, DGG will establish headquarters in Hargeisa and will train up to 45 local deminers[39]. 

 

     DDG has a base camp 70 Km west of Hargeisa at Adadley.  They have started a level I and Level II surveys around Adadley, a former military camp, and clearance of a minefield around the camp.  DDG is also involved in rehabilitation work of a boarding school and a health post in the same village. Care International has completed 38 levels I and II surveys, trained medical personnel, and started a mine awareness project with a voluntary youth group. Thus far DDG has completed the clearance of 2-battle field clearance at Adadley and the disposal of UXOs at the two sites.  DDG has also cleared the following sites:  the road to the stone query at Dheenta, the Dhobato bridge, the Haleya Bridge, the Makhayada Inanta Culvert and the Abdalla Culvert.  The DDG work covered a total of 178426 sq. meters of battle area clearance, including the abandoned Adadley boarding school, and a total 23156 sq. meters of mine clearance.  Twenty-nine AP mines and 1 AT mine and 15495 UXO pieces were destroyed.

    

     HALO TRUST started a multi year mine clearance program in September 1999.  After an initial phase I survey and mapping in March of 2000, HALO TRUST started deploying 5-mine clearance teams (totaling 62 demining lanes in important grazing and cultivation areas.  HALO TRUST has thus far destroyed 570 mines and completed a level I survey of the Awdal region.

 

     

 

5.0             Landmine Victim-Survivor Assistance

 

     Somaliland, which even in normal times had few health care or other social service facilities, has suffered through two decades of conflict and instability.  Its entire infrastructure remains in ruins.  The majority of health care workers, like other skilled professionals, have left to escape the insecurity and have not yet returned.  In 1991, at the height of mine explosions, there were only 8 general surgeons and two orthopedic surgeons in the whole country.  There is no evidence that the picture has changed at all.  There are only three hospitals capable of providing surgery in Somaliland, and they are all poorly equipped. 

 

     Data on landmine accidents or casualties are not collected systematically.  The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) estimates that between June and December of 1997 there were 70 landmine accidents involving 40 fatalities and the loss of 50 heads of livestock in the Toghdeer region alone.  NDA compiled mine victim statistics for the past 10 years.  The data compiled by NDA show that over 3500 people where injured by landmines.  In addition, landmine accidents resulted in significant loss of livestock (see below for details).

 

     Currently, two NGOs provide some post-operative assistance to landmine victims.  The Somaliland Red Crescent Society (SRCS), with funding from the Somaliland government, and the Norwegian Red Cross provides plastic lower limb prosthesis to amputees.  Handicap International (HI) also provides prosthetics, crutches and other walking aids, and runs a physical therapy clinic for amputees and other handicapped individuals[40].  Both centers are located in Hargeisa, and except for occasional travel to other districts, their patients are confined to victims who can seek assistance in Hargeisa.

 

 

Table 1: Number of Prostheses Delivered by the Somaliland Red Crescent Society

Hargeisa Rehabilitation Center

1994 to May 1999

 

CAUSE OF INJURY

 

Patient		Mine	Bullet	Accident	Other	Total
Male		300	400	90	110	900
Female		58	32	8	38	136
Child		24	6	2	14	46
TOTAL		382	438	100	162	1082

     

      Source SRCS, Hargeisa

 

Between 1993 and May 1999, the SRCS rehabilitation center provided prosthesis to 1082 patients.  Forty percent of the patients were mine victims.  On the average, the center makes plastic prosthetics for 13 to 15 patients each month.

Handicap international, which makes low-cost wood mobility devices, also runs a wheelchair-making workshop.  Notably,

The Somaliland Handicapped Persons Association does some of the work on wheelchairs. Twenty percent of HI’s patients were amputees, however, the number of landmine amputees is not specified.  In 1999, HI/Action North South assisted 382 patients including 22 amputees and provided the following aides:

 

¨      124 long and short braces

¨      253 orthopedic shoes

¨      21 wheel chairs

¨      973 walking aids

¨      97 technical aids

¨      10 other pieces of equipment.

 

 

While most mine victims are now assisted at the Somaliland Red Crescent Society Handicap Center in Hargeisa, HI provided three below knee mine victim amputees in 1999.

 

¨      lon

 

 

     The NDA compiles data on accidents in Somaliland and recently released the following 10-year statistics. 

 

Table 3:

MINE VICTIM STATISTICS FOR SOMALILAND 1988-98

Compiled By National Demining Agency 1999[41]

 

 

Region	District	People		Vehicles
		Deaths	Injured	-	Camels	Cattle	Sheep/Goats	Horses	Donkey
Western	Hargeisa	177	423	79	839	177	1355	-	124
	Salehley	110	248	32	857	-	1578	-	9
	B.gubedle	37	110	15	120	25	300	-	43
	Gabiley	124	244	48	94	291	460	-	208
	Total	448	1005	174	1910	193	3873	-	384
Togdheer	Burao	137	112	23	50	41	164	-	26
	Buxhodle	180	300	16	120	-	210	-	25
	Bali dhiig	91	84	11	77	48	98	35	24
	Odweyne	121	213	29	523	61	1119	-	21
	Sheikh	112	183	32	82	32	231	-	56
	Total	641	892	111	852	182	1822	-	152
Awdal	Zeila	233	137	15	292	130	939	35	34
	Lughay	342	218	29	485	304	1401	-	154
	Baki	102	167	10	87	295	2318	-	192
	Borama	181	169	23	129	343	1276	-	213
	Total	858	691	77	993	1072	5934	-	593
Sanaag	Erigabo	167	76	35	255	134	65	-	22
	Badhan	17	19	10	65	35	-	12	-
	Las Korey	157	77	28	195	99	35	-	15
	Dhahar	40	22	7	29	13	-	11	7
	Garadag	84	45	15	160	52	12	-	13
	El Afweyn	107	59	20	170	61	32	-	13
	Maydh	14	9	5	25	12	-	-	-
	Total	382	382	120	900	400	140	-	70

 

 

 

 

 

MINE VICTIM STATISTICS FOR SOMALILAND 1988-98 (continued)

Compiled by the National Demining Agency 1999

 

Region	District	People		Vehicles	Livestock
		Deaths	Injured	-	Camels	Cattle	Sheep/Goats	Horses	Donkeys
Sool	Las Anod	117	54	16	199	48	278
	Ainabo	397	276	42	412	106	333
	Hudun	74	57	6	121	25	106
	Taleh	-		-	-	-	-	-	-
	Total	588	387	64	732	179	717
Sahil*		97	183	58	115	65	227	17	35
Somaliland	Total	3014	3576	604	5502	2391	12713	75	1234
Sahil was a district	Until 1997.

 

1.         Introduction

      The data for the above mine victim statistics for Somaliland have been collected and compiled by the NDA during the first three months of 1999. The data represent a first effort by the NDA to get an overview of the mine and UXO victim situation in Somaliland and a first step in systemizing data collection of UXO and mine related problems.

        The NDA recognizes that the methodology utilized has been imperfect and that the data obtained may be questionable in some respects.

 

2.         Methodology

      The data have been collected by the Regional Mine Officers (RMOs) Jan-March 1999 after a briefing by the NDA. Data have been obtained via semi-structured interviews primarily with the following respondents in each district: local and regional military commanders and local chiefs of police

 

In 1999, the government of Somaliland  asked SOYAAL to register war-affected veterans and civilians.  The following table shows the data compiled by SOYAAL during the first three months of the program.

 

SNM Veterans Disabled by War Registered the 1999 Registration and Evaluation Program in Hargeisa[42].

 

Patients	Place of Injury	Mine	Bullet	Accident	Other	Total
Male	Lower Limb	171	63	23	4	261
Female	Lower Limb	6	2	1	2	11
Male	Upper Limb	70	80	15	1	166
Female	Lower Limb	2	0	0	1	3
Male	Mental Patients	10	2	1	1	14
Female	Mental Patients	0	0	0	0	0
Male	Eye & Ear	53	3	0	1	57
Female	Eye & Ear	1	0	0	0	1
Total		313	150	40	10	531

 

 

      Percent Wounded by Mine 61%

 

 

Mine Awareness and Education

 

      Very little has been done in the areas of mine awareness and education.  A number of NGOs have printed Information, Education and communication (IEC) messages in the Somali language and one occasionally sees a poster on a bulletin board, but even known minefields are not marked to warn civilians.  Nomads use branches or sticks to mark suspected landmines, but these are not easily recognized.  In conjunction with its demining activity described in section 4, SCP/SMAC trained 35 local women as civilian trainers and educators in the city of Burao[43].

 

      Care International has started in collaboration with a voluntary youth group a mine awareness project in Somaliland.  The youth group uses circus performances to promote mine awareness. Care International and Mine Tech Zimbabwe are also collaborating with the Somaliland Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SORRA) on comprehensive mine awareness campaigns throughout Somaliland.  A pilot dry run was started on May 5, 2000[44].  The Danish Demining Group is also working with a local NGO on mine awareness and education.  These projects are in their initial stages[45].