Kurdistan Region: 47 mine explosions registered in 2014 and 2015

IKMAA reveals that 47 mine explosions have taken place in the Kurdistan Region in the last two years, killing seven people and wounding 40.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) - Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA) reveals that 47 mine explosions have taken place in the Kurdistan Region in the last two years, killing seven people and wounding 40.

Ranjbar Khalid, IKMAA's director of supporting mine victims, told K24 recently that, "in 2014 alone, 31 mine explosions occurred in the Kurdistan Region that killed five people and injured 26."

In regards to 2015, Khalid stated that in November alone, 16 mine explosions have been registered by the KRG leaving two people dead and 14 wounded.

According to the statistics that has been published before by IKMAA, there are almost 314 million square meters (equal to 121 square miles) of contaminated land across the Kurdistan Region that annually leaves many casualties among the Kurdish people in the region. Every year Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) provides a special budget for mine clearance across the region.

Most of the landmines are located on the borders, especially Kurdistan Region-Iran border. The landmines date back to the Iran-Iraq war in 1980-1988. Former Dictator of Iraq Saddam Hussein also used mines in a genocidal campaign against Kurds.

In 2013, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines reported that over 29,000 people have been victims of landmine explosions in Iraq since 1980, that almost 15,000 of them, including 6,000 deaths were in the Kurdistan Region.