Aydid says he will destroy 3,000 mines

Three thousand landmines will be destroyed in the next four to six months, Somali faction leader Husayn Aydid told IRIN on Thursday.

He said his faction would destroy the mines in line with agreements signed last year.

Last November, Somalia's various political factions and the Transitional National Government, attending reconciliation talks in the Kenya, signed a commitment to ban the use of landmines in areas under their control.

The agreement was signed with the Geneva-based humanitarian organisation Geneva Call, and the leaders committed themselves to "destroy and clear landmines in areas under their control", Awad Ahmad Asharo, the justice minister of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, told IRIN at the time.

Aydid said that most of the mines were stored in areas "under his control", in Mogadishu, central regions and the Lower Juba.

He denied that his pledge was a "publicity stunt". "We are serious and we will destroy the mines systematically," he told IRIN.

He added that agencies involved in landmine control had promised him that they would provide assistance to get rid of the mines. "We are waiting for training and equipment and once we receive that we will proceed with the destruction of the mines," he said.

"The whole process will take between four to six months, and then hopefully we can proceed with removing landmines from other parts of the country," he said.