Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlangola



Angola <![CDATA[ Angola is heavily contaminated with landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), including submunitions. For more than four decades, the country saw extensive and continuous armed conflict, with different armed forces and groups making use of a wide array of weaponry.

The Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) identified 3,293 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) in 1,988 mine/ERW-impacted communities in 383 of Angola’s 557 comunas. These impacted communities represent 8% of the 23,504 communities in the country, affecting an estimated 2.4 million people.

Landmines affect the daily lives of the people of Angola in many ways. Roads were heavily mined during the war and accidents were still occurring while traveling in 2007. The LIS identified blocked roads as a nationwide problem with a particularly high impact in Bie, Huambo, and Moxico provinces. Transportation and movement have been restricted and the legacy of blocked transit routes continues to interfere with the recovery and development of the country. The LIS identified a significant although smaller number of blockages related to drinking water, housing, and public services. Blocked drinking water is a problem nationwide but is particularly concentrated in Cuanza Norte, Cuanza Sul, Lunda Sul, Malanje, and Moxico provinces. Water and electricity distribution for much of the country is also affected, due to the widespread practice of mining high-voltage electricity pylons, reservoirs and dams during the years of conflict.

Landmines also have an environmental impact in Angola. Mine contamination in Cuando Cubango province was cited as one of the obstacles to creating the new Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (Kaza TFCA), the world’s largest game park on the borders of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. National Geographic reported that “since the end of the war in 2002, elephants have begun to go back to the Luiana Partial Reserve in Angola’s sparsely populated Kuando Kubango province that borders southwest Zambia and Namibia. When the initial migration began a number of elephants had their trunks and legs blown off by mines, condemning the animals to agonizing deaths. But the elephants that followed have since avoided those areas.” According to Elephants Without Borders, “in order to re-establish and sustain wildlife communities in Luiana Partial Reserve, it is critical that the area be declared a national park and that the land mines are cleared.” More than 130,000 elephants are waiting to be allowed to move from Botswana through the park. This process has been held up until the park is free of the threat of landmines.[

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