U.S. Delegation Visits ITF Project Locations in BiH

United States of America continue to be a valued partner in our endeavours in supporting Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as it addresses its widespread contamination with landmines and explosive remnants of war. Yesterday's field visit with the U.S. Department of State delegation confirmed the high value of demining activities funded by the U.S. Government and their impact in Bosnia and Herzegovina. First and foremost benefiting the local population by enhancing their personal safety and daily life milieu.

Three locations that have been visited will, by demining completion, enable safe access to arable land, the control of river banks erosion (prevention of potential mines’ replacement) and floods prevention, communities’ socio-economic development, and most important reconstruction of devastated houses and displaced persons and returnees’ access to their properties.

More than two decades after the end of the war, BiH remains one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world. Approximately 2% of BiH territory is still today contaminated by landmines and other explosive remnants of war, which poses a direct threat to the civilian population and hinders further development of the country. Throughout its presence in BiH, ITF with the invaluable support of its donors managed to clear 77,300,000 m2 of land and remove and destroy 39,000 items of landmines and unexploded ordnance on 2,444 project locations.