More than 50,000 land mines located on the border with Iran in eastern Turkiye have been cleared as part of a joint project prepared by the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
According to the report, the $23.8 million (TL 692.4 million) project rooted out 50,000 land mines from 94 minefields over the course of three years, UNDP Turkiye announced Tuesday in a statement.
Funded by the EU and carried out by the UNDP and the Turkish Mine Action Centre (MAFAM), the project covered an area of 4.2 million square meters along the border with Iran and Armenia, rendering the region safe for civilians and border management personnel, the UNDP said.
The project also included mapping all other active land mines across Turkiye.
The EU supplied $21.3 million, while Turkiye allocated $2.5 million for the project.
“With two previous phases carried out since 2016, the project helped clear in total an area of 8.9 million square meters from a total of 95,000 land mines with $47.5 million funding,” the UNDP noted.
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