Angolan landmines kill 166 people in four years

Mon Aug 9, 2010 11:59am EDT

* Millions of landmines still scattered across the nation

* Angola is carrying out extensive de-mining programme



LUANDA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Landmines left behind by Angola's three-decade long civil war have killed 166 people and injured hundreds more in the last four years, a study showed on Monday.

The war, which turned into one of the longest Cold War conflicts, resulted in half a million dead and hundreds of thousands of landmine injuries. Angola still has the largest number of landmines in the world after Afghanistan.

Since the war ended in 2002, Angola has invested millions of dollars to clear landmines and pave the way for new roads and bridges to revive its once prosperous farming sector.

Still, 166 people were killed and 313 injured by landmines in Angola from 2006 to 2010, according to the study by its De-Mining Commission. However, only five people have died this year from landmines, it showed.

The U.N. estimates that millions of landmines remain scattered across Angola. Large stretches of the country are still out of bounds, too dangerous to farm or to travel through.

Every year, Angola hosts the "Miss Landmine Survivor" beauty contest for women injured by mines.

The civil war pitted the ruling MPLA party, backed then by the Soviet Union and Cuba, against the main opposition UNITA party, supported by the United States and South Africa. (Reporting by Henrique Almeida; editing by David Stamp)



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