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Over 160 Nations Agree to Speed Landmine Clearing

Agence France-Presse

   OSLO - The 164 signatory countries to the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT) agreed
   Friday to accelerate the work to achieve the goal of a "mine-free"
   world in 2025, Norway's foreign ministry said.

   "Countries have now agreed that it is necessary to speed up mine
   clearance over the next five years," Norway's Minister of Foreign
   Affairs Ine Eriksen Soreide said in a statement following a meeting in
   Oslo.

   According to Landmine Monitor, an annual report by the Landmine and
   Cluster Munition Monitor, 6,897 people were killed or injured by mines
   and other explosive remnants of war in 2018 and the report noted that
   it was the fourth year in a row with "exceptionally high numbers of
   recorded casualties."

   Of those, 3,789 were victims of so-called improvised mines, the highest
   recorded number to date.

   Under the Oslo Action Plan, adopted Friday, states undertake to
   "identify mined areas and put in place national plans for mine
   clearance."

   They also commit to measuring their progress in the final stretch
   before 2025, the goal set by the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention or
   Ottawa Treaty in 1997, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said
   in a statement.

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