Demining Landrover struck by mine

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said its Mine Action Co-ordination Centre (MACC) had reported on 21 February that an armoured Landrover had hit an anti-tank mine on a dirt track 4 km northwest of Omhajer, western Eritrea, on the Ethiopian-Eritrean border. The Landrover belonged to the mine-clearing organisation HALO Trust, and hit the mine on a track that had been checked and previously used by HALO, said an UNMEE information bulletin released on 21 February. It said a Board of Inquiry had been convened by UNMEE MACC and an investigation was underway. Omhajer is not in the disputed border, but was involved in the renewed round of fighting May 2000 when Ethiopian troops occupied parts of Western Eritrea in pursuit of a military solution.

Meanwhile, the Mine Action Co-ordination Centre said in an information sheet issued in Asmara, Eritrea, that a three week operation had begun on 12 February in areas suspected to contain mines. It said the operation aimed to prepare for the return of internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees once the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) had been "fully established". Field operations are being carried out by the HALO Trust, and priority lists of areas and villages to be surveyed are continually being updated, said UNMEE. On 14 February the local Eritrean armed forces area commander in the Central Sector of the contested border, said that Eritrean Defence Forces would "remove all their landmines when redeploying."