A presentation on Azerbaijan's mine clearance activities was made in Washington, D.C.
A roundtable discussion was organized by the Azerbaijani Embassy in the United States at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., with the participation of a delegation from the Azerbaijan Mine Action Agency (ANAMA), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and embassy representatives.
Samir Poladov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Agency, informed Mike Doran, a leading expert of the think tank, and other representatives, as well as researchers and students, who participated in the round table, about the humanitarian mine clearance activities carried out in Azerbaijan. He said that since the end of the Second Karabakh War, that is, from November 10, 2020 to the present, 385 people have been mine victims in Azerbaijan, 315 of whom were injured and 70 lost their lives. He noted that one more person was injured as a result of a mine explosion in the Agdam region in recent days. The ANAMA official said that 152 of the mine incidents that have occurred since November 10, 2020 to the present day were recorded outside the former line of contact in our liberated territories.
Samir Poladov added that up to now, approximately 5 percent of the funds allocated for humanitarian mine action have been implemented at the expense of international donors, while the rest has been implemented through the Azerbaijani government's own resources. He emphasized that such visits aim to increase the international community's awareness of the mine problem in Azerbaijan and the activities being carried out to eliminate this problem, as well as to increase the attention and support of international donors to this issue.
During the roundtable, ANAMA officials answered numerous questions from experts from the Hudson Institute about humanitarian demining operations carried out in Azerbaijan, the equipment and techniques used, and the role of donors.
Then, a comprehensive presentation was made on the activities carried out to combat the current mine problem and mine threat in our country, and the presentation noted that since November 10, 2020, more than 190 thousand hectares of land have been cleared of mines and unexploded ordnance, and during this period, more than 36 thousand anti-personnel mines, more than 21 thousand anti-tank mines and more than 133 thousand unexploded ordnance have been discovered. It was also emphasized that the US Marshall Legacy Institute donated more than 90 mine detection dogs to Azerbaijan, in addition to the trainings carried out by various US agencies and institutions in support of the mine action program in Azerbaijan.
