Libya, Handicap International promotes prevention

Handicap International’s emergency risk education mission on mines and explosive remnants of war has been operating in Libya since last Monday.

Between 15 and 23 March, Handicap International performed an initial evaluation mission in the field which provided consistent information on the presence of a very large number of explosive remnants of war (artillery shells and mortars, rockets, missiles, land mines and unexploded grenades). Large-scale demining operations will be necessary following the end of hostilities. In the meantime, in a bid to save lives, there is an urgent need to provide information and raise the awareness of the population to the deadly risk posed by these weapons.

Three expatriate staff from Handicap International, specialists in the risks posed by unexploded devices, arrived in Benghazi, in the north of the country, on Sunday. They have begun hiring a team of some ten Libyan staff to perform risk prevention actions targeted at the populations under threat:
- teaching people how to identify unexploded devices and to understand the risks they run when they come into contact with them.
- learning the correct action to take when faced with these weapons or any unidentified object (avoid approaching or touching them, mark the danger zone and alert Handicap International’s teams in the field).
- teaching children, who are most at risk from these weapons, the reflexes that could save their lives.

The teams will work in polluted villages on the country’s north coast, from Benghazi to Ras-Lanuf. The awareness officers will use an awareness-raising kit consisting of posters and leaflets adapted to the different populations with which they will be working: children, teenagers, women and men.
Handicap International will also use radio and television spots to broadcast their awareness message.

Libya is a tragic example that reveals how the problem of mines and explosive remnants of war still poses a very real threat.
Mines and unexploded devices continue to kill or maim one person every two hours. Children represent a third of the victims of these weapons.