5 000 landmines blown up
2004-12-05 19:09
Nouakchott - Mauritania on Sunday blew up what it said was its last remaining stock of anti-personnel mines, destroying 5 000 of the mines in desert north of the capital.
The demolition was in accord with Mauritania's commitment to a 1997 international treaty against anti-personnel mines, defence minister Baba Ould Sidi said.
Another 50 000 to 100 000 mines of all types are estimated to remain in the ground of Mauritania, most of them in the north, the United Nations says.
International agencies and the United States, Canada and other nations are helping this Arab-dominated west African nation with the removal of the anti-personnel mines.
Many of the mines are relics of conflict over Western Sahara, bordering Mauritania.
Western Sahara's Spanish colonizers left the territory in 1975, and Morocco and Mauritania split it.
War broke out the following year, and Morocco took over the whole of Western Sahara after Mauritania pulled out in 1979.
- AP