Mines in Lebanon

Lebanon is faced with two types of contamination:

1.    Contamination with cluster munitions as a result of summer of 2006 Israeli attacks on South Lebanon, where it is estimated that up to 4 million cluster subminutions were fired into South Lebanon. Due to high failure rates, it is expected that hundreds of thousands of cluster munitions did not explode.

2.    Contamination with mines and other unexploded ordnance as a result of 15 years of civil conflict that ended in 1990 and from 20 years of Israeli occupation that ended in 2000 when Israel withdrew to the Israeli side of the UN delineated Lebanon/Israel border.

According to Lebanese Mine Action Strategy, as of September 2010 18.1 sq. kilometers of land contaminated with cluster munitions remain to be cleared in Lebanon. Until today 43.3 sq. kilometers were already cleared.  According to Lebanon Mine Action Strategy, Lebanon should clear all cluster munition contaminated areas by 2016, subject to sufficient resources.
19 sq. kilometers are expected to be mined across Lebanon and along the Blue line, where more than 360.000 mines are still laid.
The Landmine and cluster munition has registered a total of 3,846 mine/ERW causalities in Lebanon; more than 400 of those were wounded or killed after 2006.

NPA Mine Action History in the Country

After the liberation of South Lebanon, Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA) and local partners launched a Landmine Victim Assistance (VA) and a Mine Risk Education (MRE) Program in Lebanon in 2001. NPA works with national partner NGOs involved in Mine Victims Assistance and Mine Risk Education on projects such as micro-credit to mine victims, physical rehabilitation and provision of prosthesis and walking aids and community meetings about the risk of mines and cluster munitions. NPA is a member of the National Committee for Mine Risk Education and Mine Victims Assistance.  

Following the end of 2006 Israeli hostilities on Lebanon, NPA established a Mine Action Program in Tyre, South Lebanon to support the efforts by Lebanese authorities and Lebanese Mine Action Centre to remove and clear cluster munition remnants in the country. Lebanon is a state party to the Convention on Cluster munitions and has an obligation to clear cluster munition contaminated areas as soon as possible, and NPA’s objective is to assist Lebanon in achieving this goal.

NPA recruited and trained staff in battle area clearance and currently has 5 battle area clearance teams operating in South Lebanon, one of which is an all-female team.  Each BAC team has an accredited site supervisor, a section commander and on average 8 searching staff. All 83 staff except program manager are from Lebanon.
Until 21 January 2011, NPA MAP Lebanon cleared 5 million sq. meters of land, clearing and destroying more than 4.600 cluster munitions.

Donors
Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid), European Union, Japan development Assistance, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.   
Read more on www.facebook.com/npamaplebanon