Egypt agreed Tuesday with the British Armtrac Company on removing landmines buried in the desert of the Egyptian North West Coast (NWC) as part of the efforts to develop the region, the Foreign ministry announced. Egypt's Executive Secretariat for Demining and Development of the North West Coast, Ambassador Fathi Al-Chadli signed an agreement with Armtrac to purchase equipment that will help in the detection and removal of landmines from the Western Desert, especially Al Alamein city. "The government and the Armtrac have agreed to lead and coordinate a cleanup and decontamination operation for mines in NWC," Egypt's Ambassador to the U.K. Nasser Kamel said in a statement. Kamel, Egyptian military engineers and heads of the British company attended the the signing of the agreement at the Egyptian Embassy in London. They expressed great hope that the new equipment would put an end to landmine problems in Egypt. Removing landmines has been projected for decades, but no progress was made. Experts say that Egypt has over 20 million landmines dating back to the two World Wars and the various armed conflicts with Israel. During a U.N. General Assembly meeting in 1993, the Egyptian envoy called on the countries that planted mines in Egypt to provide any maps and records that may help in locating the landmines. Egypt has been provided equipment and financial aids by Germany, Italy, Britain, China, the United States and Japan. On Oct. 24, 2014, a partnership agreement with the European Union (EU) delegation was signed to support the NWC development plan and relevant mine action phase two.
