International Anti-Personnel Mine Victims Day
Algeria has placed the commemoration of the International Day of Victims of Antipersonnel Mines, on April 4 each year, under the slogan:
“removing a mine…planting a tree to bring life back to the Earth”
The reforestation operations as well as the related festivities took place on land long deprived of life due to the presence of antipersonnel mines. They took place:
- In 2012, in the commune of Moughel, in the wilaya of Béchar, where olive trees were planted in a cleared minefield;
- In 2013, in the commune of Zaârouria, at a place called Oued Bouchouk, in the wilaya of Souk Ahras, where Aleppo pines were planted in another minefield also cleared.
In 2014, it is planned to renew this type of initiative in the wilaya of El Tarf.
These wilayats, bordering Tunisia and Morocco, have the particularity of having been crossed by the mined dam “Morice and Challe” where antipersonnel mines were laid by the millions and which, as a result, have seen significant portions of their respective territories trapped since 1956, the date of the decision of the colonial authorities to proceed with the locking of the borders by means of the massive use of antipersonnel mines, in particular.
Today, these spaces, like so many others in the wilayat of Tlemcen, Tébessa and Nâama, have been cleared of these devices of death and desolation by specialized units of the People's National Army, specially dedicated to the noble mission of humanitarian demining. Thus decontaminated, they could now accommodate any development project just as people can move around in complete safety.
This opportunity is taken to recall that in a first phase of humanitarian demining from 1963 to 1988, units of the National People's Army treated 50,006 ha of land in this way and destroyed 7,819,120 antipersonnel mines. Since the resumption of humanitarian demining in the areas remaining to be demined, on November 27, 2004, these same forces have further treated and restored to life 6,878,752 ha from which 904,751 antipersonnel mines have been extracted and destroyed.
“removing a mine…planting a tree to bring life back to the Earth”
The reforestation operations as well as the related festivities took place on land long deprived of life due to the presence of antipersonnel mines. They took place:
- In 2012, in the commune of Moughel, in the wilaya of Béchar, where olive trees were planted in a cleared minefield;
- In 2013, in the commune of Zaârouria, at a place called Oued Bouchouk, in the wilaya of Souk Ahras, where Aleppo pines were planted in another minefield also cleared.
In 2014, it is planned to renew this type of initiative in the wilaya of El Tarf.
These wilayats, bordering Tunisia and Morocco, have the particularity of having been crossed by the mined dam “Morice and Challe” where antipersonnel mines were laid by the millions and which, as a result, have seen significant portions of their respective territories trapped since 1956, the date of the decision of the colonial authorities to proceed with the locking of the borders by means of the massive use of antipersonnel mines, in particular.
Today, these spaces, like so many others in the wilayat of Tlemcen, Tébessa and Nâama, have been cleared of these devices of death and desolation by specialized units of the People's National Army, specially dedicated to the noble mission of humanitarian demining. Thus decontaminated, they could now accommodate any development project just as people can move around in complete safety.
This opportunity is taken to recall that in a first phase of humanitarian demining from 1963 to 1988, units of the National People's Army treated 50,006 ha of land in this way and destroyed 7,819,120 antipersonnel mines. Since the resumption of humanitarian demining in the areas remaining to be demined, on November 27, 2004, these same forces have further treated and restored to life 6,878,752 ha from which 904,751 antipersonnel mines have been extracted and destroyed.