Dakar, Senegal - The Senegalese government has pledged to clear all mines in Casamance, in the southern part of the country, by 1 March, 2016, after failing to meet the 2009 deadline as initially planned, the director of the Senegalese national anti-mines action (CNAMS), Papa Oumar Ndiaye, told a press conference here Monday.

He said the move was in accordance with the Ottawa convention on mines. 

Assessing mine-clearing operations undertaken since 2008, Ndiaye said that 134,634.69 square metres of land had been cleared of mines to date.

He said that the number of mines destroyed was estimated at 153 following the 55 technical and non-technical surveys undertaken on the fields.

Ndiaye said 787 persons were hit by anti-personal mines between 1988 and 2011 in Casamance out of which 171 died.

In its 2007-2015 national anti-mine action strategy, CNAMS intends to ready the area for the resumption of socio-economic activities to fight poverty caused by the loss of cattle or the impossible access to cultivable areas, water, infrastructure, education or health in Casamance which has witnessed armed rebellion since 1980.

Pana 21/09/2011