The MAT Rwanda programme began in April 2006, when the United States Department of State (USDOS) grant funded a manual Landmine Clearance programme, which revitalised the Rwandan National De-mining Offices (NDO’s) country programme.
Since this project started in 2006 MAT and the NDO have manually cleared 13 of the 16 minefields. In early 2008 MAT deployed a Mine Detection Dog team into Rwanda; this team is now accredited and is providing Quality Assurance checks of the areas which have been manually cleared, thereby providing the final check of the land prior to its hand back to the indigenous communities. MAT believes it will meet the Ottawa mandate of a ‘landmine impact free Rwanda’ by the 01st December 2010.
A good deal of the credit for the success of the Rwandan Mine Action Programme must go to the UK’s International Mine Action Training Centre (IMATC), based in Nairobi Kenya. The IMATC facilitated the training and equipping of the NDO’s de-miners, so that they deployed back to Rwanda ready for renewed efforts in reducing down the 16 mine fields. By February 2008 the 16 affected areas of Rwanda have been reduced to just 3 remaining areas. It is envisaged that, in 2008 should a machine become available for reducing vegetation in one large suspected area, that Rwanda may become ‘landmine impact free’ by early 2009. This has become a possibility due to the ability of the RDF/ NDO de-miners, their excellent leadership and their professionalism.
