Uncleared mines hampering recovery

Thousands of mines remaining uncleared after the war with Eritrea are blighting families’ hopes of recovery, according to a United Nations report.

Families forced from their homes by the warfare have been unable to rebuild their shattered lives - 18 months after the fighting ended, it said. The study, carried out by the UN’s Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia (UN-EUE), said that development and recovery programmes were being hindered by the delay.

The report's authors, Yves Guinand and Benoit Raymakers, argue that the delay in mine-clearing activities "slows down" the recovery of internally displaced people (IDPs) who fled the fighting.

"Eighteen months after the signed peace agreement, mines in reported mine fields on the Ethiopian side have not yet been cleared," they said." Clearing the minefields is imperative in order to create a conductive environment for IDPs that have returned home to rebuild their lives."

More than 300,000 people fled their homes when fighting – which cost thousands of lives - broke out with Eritrea in May 1998. The heavily mined areas in Tigray – which borders Eritrea – are also claiming hundreds of lives. Three hundred and thirty-six victims were registered by September 2001, many of them children.

Fears are also mounting that if the mines are not removed by the start of the main agricultural season in Ethiopia – known as the Meher – farmers will not be able to grow their crops. "Hence, once more, part of the land will remain fallow and all those people who are unable to return home due to mine danger will have to be assisted through an emergency programme instead of receiving development and recovery support," the report stated.

The EUE said the World Bank-financed Emergency Recovery Programme (ERP) had to be accelerated to help improve the livelihoods of people living in the area. "For the regional government of Tigray, the ERP process would be more effective and beneficial if it could be speeded up," the report said.

The authors also argue that poor coordination in aid assistance is also acting as a major hurdle to recovery. "If the different programmes and projects that cover rehabilitation activities for war-affected people would experience better coordination and timeliness of aid deliveries, the people returning from Eritrea would face much less hardship," they said.

They added that the thousands of mines left in the ground were a particular hazard in the eastern zone of Tigray, near Gerahu Sirnay and Zala Ambesa. Families are refusing to go back to their home towns because of the hazard and the delayed border ruling by the international Boundary Commission in The Hague. "They do not wish to return permanently yet," the report said. "Government officials have dissuaded them and recommended waiting for the Boundary Commission's decision before returning."

"Furthermore, their houses have been destroyed and the danger represented by the presence of mines remains," it said. "All the areas infested with mines have been identified, but the mine-clearing activities have only just begun."

The report, which was published on Tuesday, also says that the Tigray region has received substantial assistance to help reconstruction in the area. The ERP budgeted a total of US $32.4 million for assistance to IDPs - a third of which is for farming and economic activity recovery. But, the report says, conditions for people living in Tigray are extremely tough. Limited market opportunities which existed in the border towns with Eritrea have now been stopped.

"Hence, the income gap of lost petty businesses and the livestock trade that used to be major income sources for many poor Tigrayan households will remain one of many development challenges that need to be addressed," the report said.