A regionally-based effort relying less on foreign aid is needed to rid southern Africa of some 15 million unexploded land mines, AFP quoted a SADC official as saying on Wednesday. A SADC technical meeting in Botswana this week resolved that demining operations would only be sustainable if local capacity is developed, the official Joao Ndlovu told the news agency. Most SADC countries did not have the technology and expertise to win demining contracts, awarded by public tender, he said. “In most cases, companies that are awarded the contracts are foreign companies. They rely on local people, but only at a very low level,” he said. “We in southern Africa are going to continue relying on technology that is consistent and sustainable with our reality. That technology is the use of sniffer dogs and manual demining,” Ndlovu added.
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