Boy killed in mine blast

A seven-year-old boy has become the latest casualty of unexploded mines that blight the border region of Ethiopia and Eritrea, the UN said on Thursday.

Ebrahim Saleh was killed near the Eritrean town of Tserona last Friday, according to the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).

UNMEE spokeswoman Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte told journalists at a weekly press briefing that an investigation was underway into the young boy’s death.

His death brings the total number of fatalities due to landmines and unexploded ordnance in the border region to 19 since the beginning of the year.

Ethiopia are Eritrea are two of the most heavily-mined countries in the world – a legacy of successive conflicts that have ravaged the Horn of Africa.

In Eritrea there are an estimated 1,500,000 mines and some 300,000 unexploded ordnance. Ethiopia is contaminated with around two million mines.

Under current plans, the Ethiopian government believes it will take two decades to rid the country of the massive landmine contamination. It is seeking US $19 million over three years to
combat the threat.

“The risk of landmines continues to plague our country,” said Etsay Gebreselassie, deputy director of the Ethiopian Mine Action Office (EMAO).

His comments come as the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and EMAO held key talks to help raise mine awareness along the border regions in northern Ethiopia.

“We must carefully co-ordinate our efforts so that all actors work together to ensure the safety of Ethiopia's children and educate them properly against landmine accidents,” said UNICEF representative for Ethiopia Bjorn Ljungqvist.

Aid agencies have warned that landmines and unexploded ordnance are hampering attempts to move families, who fled the two-year border conflict, back to their homes.