European Commission (EC) approved some one million Euros for a demining project on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Wednesday, local media reported.
The project that is financed by the EC is named “Review of the mine suspected areas, new area and strategic move 2019” was presented on Wednesday afternoon in the BiH’s capital Sarajevo and will last for 18 months.
The project will jointly be executed by Armed Forces of BiH, BiH Mine Action Centre (BHMAC), European Union Force Althea military deployment and Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA).
At the meeting, partners discussed the manner of implementation and control of spending of the EC grant, and agreed on the introduction of a new demining standard, revision of the current Demining Strategy and areas of BiH that will be cleared of mines.
The project envisages an assessment of suspected hazardous areas, establishes the basis for the implementation of a new national anti-mining strategy and defines indicators for the land release plan as an integral part of the new anti-mine action strategy, official press release says.
Since the end of war in 1990s in Bosnia, 1751 people have been killed by mines and unexploded bombs. BiH still has about 17, 000 tonnes of ammunition and over 121,000 mines inside its territory, mainly as a result of 1992-1995 war.
