SULAIMANI (ESTA) — More than 13,500 people have been killed or injured by land mines in the Kurdistan Region, the Kurdish Mine Action Agency said on Monday.
In a statement marking the U.N.-designated International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance, the agency said more than 255 square kilometers of territory were yet to be cleared of land mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO).
“That needs financial support and it cannot be done only by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) alone,” it added.
It stressed the importance of awareness and adherence of people to the messages and instructions of awareness, urging people to avoid areas where there are land mines and explosive remnants of war.
Separately, the KRG said in a tweet that 22,918 UXO and 1,894 other types of explosives were destroyed in 2021.
The remnants date back more than three decades to the Iran-Iraq war between 1980 and 1988.
The agency said in January that there were more than 3,300 minefields in the Kurdistan Region.
*This article has been corrected in the title and the first paragraph to reflect 13,500 civilians, not 14,500.
