Ukraine, Angola agree to strengthen cooperation in humanitarian demining
Ukraine and Angola will strengthen cooperation in mine action, the press service of the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture said.
"Ukraine and Angola will strengthen cooperation in mine action. This was agreed by Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture Ihor Bezkaravainy and Deputy Director General for Technical Issues at the National Mine Action Agency of the Republic of Angola Isabel Masela," the ministry said in a statement on its website on Friday.
According to the statement, the working meeting took place during the 29th International Meeting of National Mine Action Programme Directors and United Nations Advisers hosted by Geneva.
"It is very important for us to maintain dialogue with countries that, like us, have suffered from the consequences of war. Angola has been clearing its territory of mines left behind after the civil war for decades. They have experience to share with us and are interested in learning more about the mine action system that Ukraine has built in recent years. That is why we invited representatives of Angola to visit Ukraine and see on the ground the solutions that are making land safer," Bezkaravainy said.
The ministry noted that before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Angola was considered one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. As a result of the civil war, which lasted almost 30 years from 1975 to 2002, the country's territory was contaminated with anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. International organizations such as MAG and HALO Trust have identified and neutralized more than 200,000 explosive remnants of war over the past 30 years.
