Just two months ago in Angola, His Royal Highness The Duke of Sussex retraced his late mother’s footsteps, 22 years after the world’s cameras famously captured her walking through a live minefield. That minefield is no longer a danger, having been cleared to make way for a thriving town – a busy community with homes, businesses, and paved roads where the mines once laid.
But even today, 17 years after the end of Angola’s civil war, landmines still claim lives. Over the past five years, more than 60 percent of the victims of the country’s landmines have been children, the majority born after the war ended.
Tepa village in Angola is surrounded by minefields. With no running water supply to the village, residents are forced to travel more than a mile in each direction for water from the river for their daily needs – a chore which often falls to women and children.
This onerous but vital task is indicative of the extreme poverty facing Tepa’s residents and much of Angola. And for the women and children of Tepa, this daily chore is also life-threatening as the only path through to fresh water runs directly through a live minefield.
Just weeks ago, a mine was found one step away from the path’s edge. Knowing the danger, those walking the path move carefully when they pass each other for fear of a stumble or a wrong move.
Before the war, Angola was self-sufficient in crops, yet a return to peace has not led to a successful return of livelihoods based on agriculture. Fields lie barren where crops should be growing, due to the level of landmine contamination. Some people, forced by poverty, risk their lives to farm close to minefields hoping that they won’t strike a mine or grenade.
Last year, MAG’s rapid response team in Angola responded to more than 500 emergency reports, removing 800 explosive items.
Many Angolan families still live as refugees in Zambia because their homeland is riddled with mines, almost two decades after the war ended. Put simply, until minefields are cleared, Angola is unable to thrive. The urgent task ahead of us is to get to each mine before another young life is taken.
A donation of $50 can clear 35 square yards in a minefield. Will you help make Angola’s children safe? Please donate to MAG today.
