Recovery Assistance for Landmine Survivors Becomes a Reality at Last

In ReliefWeb, Tenzin Manell, associate director for cash and livelihoods for the Women’s Refugee Commission co-authored this post with Bill Marsden, an independent consultant, on recovery assistance for landmine survivors.

In 2019, landmines killed more than 2,000 people and injured more than 3,350. From a schoolgirl in Gaza to a cowherder in South Sudan, from a boy in the woods in Angola to a man visiting his destroyed home in northwest Syria – their lives were taken or irrevocably changed in the flash of an explosion.

Across the 55 countries where accidents happened in 2019, states have struggled and, in some cases, failed to provide even basic services to survivors, their families, and communities.

Humanitarian Mine Action agencies – which are responsible, among other things, for surveying and removing explosive ordnance (EO), including landmines, that remains after a conflict – have at the heart of their work a commitment to improve the safety and security of populations living amidst EO. However, accidents often occur in remote or dangerous places, where few humanitarian agencies ever reach and many EO accidents go unreported.