FUZULI, Azerbaijan, March 6. Over 68,900 hectares of Azerbaijan’s liberated territories have been cleared of mines to date, Head of Department of the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) Idris Ismayilov said during the meeting of the working group of the Interdepartmental Center under the Coordination Headquarters, Trend reports.
According to Ismayilov, this year it’s expected to clear from mines up to 77 hectares of land where construction of roads is underway or will be.
"In total, more than 82,700 unexploded ordnances and mines were found, while 8.1 percent of the territories cleared of mines or 5,600 hectares fall on the territories where transport and IT infrastructure is being built,” he noted.
“Besides, 1,070 hectares of cleared areas lie along the railways that are being built in Karabakh. The Barda-Aghdam and Fuzuli-Zangilan-Aghdam railway sections are completely cleared of mines," the agency’s representative also said.
Ismayilov added that by the end of 2023, it’s planned to clear over 820,000 hectares of land from mines and unexploded ordnances.
Following the liberation of its lands, Azerbaijan from Nov. 2020 started carrying out operations on clearing its lands from mines, booby traps, and various weapons left behind by the Armenian troops.
As part of the de-mining process from January 1 through January 30, 2023, a total of 61 anti-personnel, 157 anti-tank landmines, as well as 523 units of unexploded ordnance, were discovered and removed in Tartar, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Khojavand, Lachin, Shusha, Fuzuli, Gubadli, Jabrayil, and Zangilan districts.
In 2022, ANAMA has cleared over 8,780 anti-personnel, 4,133 anti-tank landmines, as well as 14,950 unexploded ordnances from 41,915 hectares of land.
The Coordination Headquarters was established to address issues in liberated territories in centralized manner. Following the Presidential Decree of November 24, 2020, Head of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan Samir Nuriyev was appointed the head of the Headquarters.