30 years of Mine Action

Over the past three decades, the Norwegian People's Aid have cleared 2 million explosive remnants of war in 45 countries. Here is a fragment of the story.

1992 Cambodia - where it all begun. Demining was an absolute prerequisite as tens of thousands of refugees were about to return to Khmer Rouge’s killing fields.

1994 NPA’s first all-female clearance team is ready for action in Mozambique. Today, 1 of 4 of NPA's deminers are women.

1995 NPA joins the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).

1996 Shortly after the end of the Bosnia war, NPA moves in to assist with mine clearance.

1997 The landmine cause is high on the agenda after Princess Diana makes her famous walk across a minefield in Angola in the call for an international ban on landmines. Only weeks before her tragic death, she visits NPA's country programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In September, the Mine Ban Treaty is concluded in Oslo. The Treaty opens for signature in Ottawa the same year. ICBL is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to ban landmines.

1999 The Mine Ban Treaty enters into force after being ratified by 40 states.

2004 NPA's renowned Global Training Centre for Mine Detection Dogs is established in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2006 The first cluster bomb is cleared by NPA in Lebanon. NPA will later become a world leader within this segment of Mine Action, with large programmes in countries such as Vietnam, Lao PDR and Cambodia.

The same year we join the The Cluster Munition Coalition(CMC).

2008 The Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted in Dublin and opens for signature in Oslo after systematic pressure from CMC, with NPA taking a forward-leaning role. As with the Mine Ban Treaty, we use our technical competence and field experience to lift the brutal reality into the political work.

2009 NPA contributes to a laminde-free Rwanda.

2010 The Convention on Cluster Munitions enters into force after 30 states have ratified the Treaty.

NPA assists in clearing Georgia and Zambia free of cluster munition, and to destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions in Moldova.

2011 The NRK Telethon "Clearing for life" raises NOK 219 million for NPA's clearance of landmines and cluster munition.

2012 NPA launches its first mine clearance programme in Latin America, more precisely on the border between Chile and Peru.

We clear Grenada free of cluster bombs and assist Uganda, Guinea-Bissau and Jordan in declaring themselves free of landmines. The latter becomes the first country in the Middle East to accomplish this achievement.

2013 NPA joins the board of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

2014 NPA starts up a new focus area: Conflict Preparedness and Protection (CPP). The programme empowers civilians in war zones with the tools and knowledge they need to be better prepared and protected against the use of explosive weapons.

2015 One of the most mine-affected countries in the world, Mozambique, becomes landmine-free after more than 20 years of clearance. NPA is a key contributor to this achievement.

2016 NPA enters Colombia to lead a pilot project where the guerrilla group FARC-EP and deminers from the Military work together to clear mines. After 50 years of civil war, the project is part of the ongoing peace process in the country. The peace accord is signed the same year, for which President Juan Manuel Santos is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2017 2017: NPA enters Iraq to clear improvised mines left behind by ISIS. These brutal, extremely potent mines require innovation of new methodologies. Today, Iraq is NPA's largest Mine Action programme.

An overwhelming majority of UN states vote in favour of banning nuclear weapons, and ICAN is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2019 NPA assists Albania in clearing seven locations littered with unexploded ordnance from unplanned explosions at munitions sites.

In the 20th year of the Mine Ban Treaty, Norway takes over the presidency for the Convention and hosts the 4th Review Conference in Oslo - with NPA as a vital collaborator.

2020 On 1 August, on the tenth anniversary of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Montenegro can finally declare itself free of cluster munition thanks to the efforts of NPA's deminers.

2021 The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force after being ratified by 50 states.

2022 After Russia launches a war of aggression against Ukraine, NPA gets a country office in Kyiv up and running in record time. In the autumn, we are in the process of training deminers, as well as delivering CPP training to civilians.

More than a decade of political pressure from civil society finally pays off, and UN member states adopt a political declaration on the use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas (EWIPA).
A record high 82 states join the declaration when it opens for signature in Dublin.

Back in Cambodia, where it all begun, NPA finally gets the green light for mine clearance on the border with Thailand. This is not least an important precondition for resolving the border dispute between the two countries - and for Cambodia to meet its treaty-obligations of becoming landmine-free by 2025.