Danger on the Road
On 23rd August 2005, MAG Angola's Technical Field Manager in Luena, Neil Kennair, and Road Technical Field Manager, John McFarlane, were travelling the road from Lungue Bungue, where we have a bridge clearance project. The road had been travelled many times and little did they know what lay beneath, just 65km from Luena. It was thanks to MAG's Mine Risk Education that local man, Boas Caiombo, knew what to do when he found a potentially deadly landmine connected to more than 7kg of explosives - more than enough to destroy a vehicle and its passengers.
The toe popper mine was marked in the middle of the road by a tyre rim as a makeshift way of preventing drivers running over it. Many cars had passed over the landmine and detonation cord before it was found. However, in accordance with MAG's road usage guidelines, the vehicles had been driving in the tracks of other vehicles and had therefore been able to travel without detonating it. When they spotted the tyre rim the two experienced technical managers rendered safe the switch and then separated all the components, including the detonation cord linking the switch to the explosives, before removing the explosives themselves.
Further down the road, the two men were flagged down by Boas Caiombo who told them how he had found the landmine and marked it with the tyre rim. It emerged that he had received Mine Risk Education from our Community Liaison team and so new what to do when he came across the toe popper and detonation cord. He knew not to deal with the item himself, but to mark it and to call for MAG's help. Having seen the MAG vehicle pass earlier in the day, he marked the site - his quick thinking in using a visible marker alerted MAG personnel to the problem and saved lives.
MAG's Mine Risk Education sessions provide information and advice on how to live more safely in a mined environment, including what to do if you find an explosive item
The threat has now been removed and the risk on this section of the road has been reduced. There remain thousands of kilometres of roads where there are potentially life-threatening landmines and explosives. Working in cooperation with the community, local and national government and other non-government organisations, MAG is addressing this threat in Moxico and Lunda Sul Provinces. Its work will open up roads for transporting people and goods, food by the World Food Programme and supplies for vital social service provision. In short, the work of MAG is contributing to the reconstruction of Angola and a continued peace.
Lydia Good, Programme Officer
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