Politics
Colombia will send team of military engineers to train Ukrainian forces on landmine removal
Washington’s decision to invite the South American country to lead demining training efforts makes sense when one considers that nearly 60 years of bloody internal conflict made Colombia one of the world’s most heavily mined countries
May 24, 2022 11:57am
Updated: May 24, 2022 5:23pm
Colombia’s Defense Ministry announced on Monday that Bogota is committing a group of military engineers to help train their Ukrainian counterparts in how to remove landmines.
Once ingenieros militares @Ingenieros_EJC entrenarán a soldados ucranianos en Desminado militar.
— Diego Molano Aponte (@Diego_Molano) May 23, 2022
Estarán en un país vecino miembro de la @NATO, capacitando, mejorando técnicas y procedimientos tácticos de Desminado. pic.twitter.com/79GWikV0vt
According to a statement from Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano, the engineers were invited to give the training by the United States – the de facto leader of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, of which Colombia is also a member, Reuters reported.
“This training will be given by 11 military engineers who will go to a NATO member country which is a neighbor of Ukraine,” Molano said.
Ultimately, Washington’s decision to invite the South American country to lead demining training efforts makes sense when one considers that nearly 60 years of bloody internal conflict made Colombia one of the world’s most heavily mined countries, according to data from the United Nations.
In fact, landmines have killed at least 2,342 people and left close to 10,000 injured since 1990.
Similarly, Ukrainian fields have been littered with mines since Russian forces first invaded the country on Feb. 24. Although authorities in Kyiv and Moscow have both said they will work to clear the mines from known locations across Ukraine, the United Nations has warned that mines threaten the lives of millions of Ukrainians and demining efforts could take decades.
According to Osnat Lubrani, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, mines are now a major humanitarian concern in the country and demining efforts could take years to achieve.
“It may take a decade to clear the land that has been contaminated in eastern Ukraine. Landmines and other explosive ordnance will remain a threat to civilians’ physical and socioeconomic well-being for years to come. In the meantime, residents of eastern Ukraine have no choice but to live, cultivate their land and send their children to school in areas littered with landmines,” Lubrani said.
“The Government should continue working towards assuring large-scale humanitarian mine clearance, and the planting of new mines should be avoided at all costs,” she added.
