The Egyptian authorities say they have cleared landmines from 13,100 hectares of desert at Alamein, about 400km northwest of Cairo, paving the way for agricultural and housing projects. Most mines were laid during World War II and the Arab-Israeli wars between 1948 and 1973, and have hampered plans to develop the desert, experts said according to the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), which is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Government has been seeking international assistance to demine its deserts since the end of the 1990s, but there has been "scant interest from the international community", according to Fathi el-Shazly, a former diplomat and the manager of Mine-Action, a local NGO. Abdel Rahman Moussa, Secretary General of the Association of Albaco International, on International Day for Mine Awareness, said that among the objectives of the society for establishing security, peace and stability of societies, the efforts of the Ministry of International Cooperation through the expansion of landmine-risk education and the delivery of more than 31,000 acres, “endeavors to clean up the northern coast of mines and we hope that the process would be done until the end with the same seriousness”.
