3 million mines in Sudan and 1.5 million victims

Sudan confirmed that landmines in the country number about 3 million, situated over large areas of the South, Southwest and East of the country.

Ambassador Owad Mohammed Hassan, the representative of the Sudanese government in Yemen, said that the government has a program for treating the mine problem that includes a plan for a media campaign to increase awarness among citizens to reduce accidents.

Major Hassan Osman, the minister of state, said that American experts had recently visited Sudan to estimate the state's needs in order to combat this problem and reduce the spread of mines.

He said that the experts will attempt to locate the areas where the mines are concentrated, to find out how best to remove the minefields, and to learn the number of injuries occurring, and about establishing treatment centers and producing the parts that are needed by the injured such as artificial legs.

He said also that the victims of the mines include more than 500,000 citizens and about one million handicapped in the South and East of Sudan, clarifying that the southern and eastern areas of El-Kormok and Kissan were saturated with mines.