UN warns: Returning displaced Nigerians at risk of landmine explosions

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The United Nations has expressed concern that displaced communities in Nigeria — with camps closing and nowhere else to go — risk returning to areas where lethal explosive remnants may be hidden from view.

Speaking on the sidelines of a key international meeting in support of landmine action taking place at the UN in Geneva on Wednesday, experts explained how shrinking resources in Afghanistan and Nigeria had exposed civilians to unexploded ordnance.

They stressed that mine action programmes, often viewed as long-term recovery initiatives, are in fact emergency humanitarian interventions that save lives.

Chief of the Mine Action Programme, Mr Edwin Faigmane, representing UNMAS in Nigeria, said in a statement that returnees in the country were at great risk of landmine deaths. Punch