Azerbaijan indicated among most mine-contaminated countries in world

Azerbaijan is among the countries most contaminated with mines in the world,” the Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA), Vugar Suleymanov, told a public hearing held on November 4 at the parliament themed “Tackling the Threat of Landmines: The Impact of Explosives on the Ecosystem, Azernews reports.

The chairman says that these hidden seeds of death not only pose a direct threat to people's lives and health but also harm the ecosystem and seriously affect people's well-being and social development: “During the occupation, Garabagh and Eastern Zangazur were destroyed by Armenian military units and, according to estimates, were polluted with about 1.5 million mines and explosives. With a minimum calculation, this means 480 tons of plastic mass contaminated with harmful substances.”

The impact of mines is devastating; people die or remain disabled for life, Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) Vugar Suleymanov said.

The chairman notes that 336 people (65 killed, 271 injured of different severity) became victims of explosives since the end of the Second Garabagh War until today.

Last month, 1,695 mines were detected in Azerbaijani territories liberated from Armenian occupation. Some 928 anti-tank mines, 767 anti-personnel mines, and 8,537 unexploded ammunition were detected and neutralized (6,687.4 hectares of land were demined) from October 1 through October 31.