UN: 70% of unexploded ordnances remain under rubble in Iraq

Seventy per cent of unexploded ordnance and mines are still in the rubble in Iraq, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said yesterday.

“The presence of unexploded ordnance and mines in Iraq’s areas liberated from the Daesh grip is continuing to hinder a safe and voluntary return of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs),” Anadolu Agency quoted a statement by the UNMAS.

In #Iraq, 70% of #ISIS explosives still lie underneath the rubble: @UNMAS https://t.co/DskkgG4Bem

— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) June 9, 2019

Despite the fact that the Iraqi forces recaptured lots of areas across the country two years ago, the UN organisation pointed out, explosive risks were continuing to be “one of the primary inhibitors for the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of IDPs to their homes.”

On his part, UNMAS senior programme manager, Pehr Lodhammar, said that the explosive hazards were “continuing to have an adverse effect on afflicted communities in Iraq.”

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“Our primary mandate is to facilitate a safe and voluntary return for IDPs to their homes,” Lodhammer noted, stressing that the organisation could not do achieve its mission “while an estimated 70 per cent of explosive hazards still lie beneath the rubble.”

Unexploded mines and bombs are one of the major challenges preventing the Iraqi authorities from repatriating displaced people in northern Iraq liberated areas, particularly in Nineveh and Kirkuk.

According to statistics by the Iraqi immigration ministry, a total of 3.1 million Iraqis out of 5.5 million, who were displaced from the country’s northern and western governorates following the June 2014 events, returned to their homes with the rest remaining in camps in the Kurdistan Region.

In late 2017, the Iraqi government announced the liberation of the entire country, including Mosul, from Daash. However, the military group is said to have been maintaining some cells across the war-torn country.