Authorities in Colombia have declared that 166 of the country’s municipalities are free of anti-personnel landmines, adding that 14 other municipalities are free of suspicion of such weapons.
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President Juan Manuel Santos said Colombia is the country with the second-highest number of landmines, after Afghanistan.
“Wars are an accumulation of horrors, but in the midst of those horrors, one of the worst is that of anti-personnel mines,” Santos said during an event in the Antioquia department.
“Placing mines is very easy and cheap, but eliminating and disappearing them is costly and dangerous.”
The Colombian government has pledged to clean up remaining anti-personnel mines by 2021 and declare the country free of explosive devices. There are still 507 municipalities in the country with suspected anti-personnel mines, according to the Direction of Integral Action Against Mines in Colombia
For years, Colombian media has sought to place sole responsibility for landmine injuries and deaths on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC. The Colombian government, however, has also participated in installing the devices during previous administrations, especially during former President Alvaro Uribe’s tenure.
Earlier this year, around 1,000 former FARC rebels committed to identify and remove land mines across Colombia.
The mines have hurt 11,495 people in the country since 1990, 4,000 of which were civilians. Many of them have died as a result of their detonations.
Victims of anti-personnel mines are demanding reparations for those killed, wounded and amputated due to explosions.