Despite the serious threat posed by landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW) in Guinea Bissau, in recent months international eyes have focused increasingly and almost exclusively on drug trafficking through this tiny West African nation.

Demining organisations are not sure that growing attention on the drug trade in Guinea Bissau will aid their efforts, but are hopeful that the issue will raise awareness in general.

“With all the attention, perhaps donors will start to recognize Guinea Bissau’s name and realise that the country, one of the poorest in the world, faces many problems, not just with trafficking,” Cassandra McKeown, finance director for the UK’s Cleared Ground Demining, told IRIN.

Greg Holliday, political officer for Guinea Bissau at the US embassy in Senegal, told IRIN that the drug trafficking issue has significantly increased attention on the small country. “I’ve spoken to three reporters in the past week about drug trafficking in Guinea Bissau. The issue may help people realise that this small country exists and faces several problems,” he said.

Though drug trafficking threatens to upset governance and security in the nation, ranked at 173 out of 177 nations by the UN Human Development Index, as a post-conflict nation Guinea Bissau still remains plagued by other serious humanitarian crises including residual ERW.

Forgotten crisis

“Guinea Bissau’s landmine and ERW problem is a forgotten and neglected emergency,” Jorge Queta, UN national humanitarian affairs officer for Guinea Bissau, told IRIN.

According to UNDP, contamination affects the poorest people in Guinea Bissau. As one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, the highly fragile economy of Guinea Bissau relies mainly on farming and fishing. In the north, ERW contamination has left most of the population with unusable farmland. According to a UNDP humanitarian situation report, contamination prevents subsistence farming and cash crop harvesting in affected areas, thus negatively impacting the livelihoods of people in these zones.

The report says reconstruction projects planned for these areas are also impeded by lack of access to affected villages, noting that “clearance of these zones would allow rehabilitation of conflict-affected communities to continue”.

According to the UNDP, 32 out of 39 sectors of Guinea Bissau, including some 278 villages, remain contaminated by mines and munitions left over from three separate conflicts. Remaining ERW dates back to the country’s war of independence in the 1960s. A two year civil war in 1998 and spillover from the conflict in the Casamance region of Senegal served only to exacerbate the situation.

Guinea Bissau’s civil war in 1998 left its capital, Bissau, profusely contaminated with unexploded munitions. With one third of the population residing in Bissau, local and international NGOs focused on ridding the city of its unexploded mines. Bissau was declared mine free in 2006, but both the city and surrounding rural areas are still affected by other ERW such as unexploded chemical bombs, large aircraft bombs and cluster munitions. Outside Bissau, anti-personnel mines continue to threaten general safety.

US assistance

Twelve US Air Force technicians are in Guinea Bissau on a year long contract to assist in capacity building for local demining non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Despite local rumours that the technicians are in fact there to keep an eye on the trafficking issue, US embassy official Holliday said the 12 are solely focused on capacity building for local demining efforts. “They are not involved in surveying the drug issue, they were sent to assist with the cleanup of unexploded ordnance,” he said.

For local and international NGOs on the ground in Guinea Bissau, where the population waits in anticipation of having its land freed up for use, the clean-up process has been frustratingly slow.

“There is still a lot of mine action that’s been forgotten, and demining efforts are about two years behind schedule. We’re already meant to be out demining in the countryside, but there is still much to be done in Bissau itself,” the UK’s McKeown told IRIN.

Currently, two local NGOs are working on clearance, Humaid and Lutcam, assisted by CAAMI (National Mine Action Coordination Centre of Guinea Bissau) and British NGO Cleared Ground Demining.

“We clear a field on Friday, come back on Monday, and local farmers have planted peanuts. These people really need their land, and will work around ERW despite the danger. They need to feed their families," Tammy Hall, former UNDP technical adviser for CAAMI, told IRIN.

According to Hall, funding needs for project completion are modest and with some additional support, local NGOs could increase their capacity in the field and tackle problems with greater efficiency. “ERW in Guinea Bissau is a solvable problem, and with the necessary resources the country could be cleaned up within two years,” Hall told IRIN.

Currently, Norway, the USA, Canada and the UK provide support for clearing efforts. The UNDP has requested US$286,125 for demining efforts for 2007, adding to a total budget of $572,250. According to McKeown, the annual budget for Cleared Ground Demining is about $400,000.

Even in the face of renewed international attention, the country continues to live and work around both mines and ERW, a serious but solvable problem.

“How can a country begin to think of peace and reconstruction when there are these constant reminders of war? In order to really move forward, Guinea Bissau must rid itself of these munitions,” said Hall.

According to Holliday, apart from efforts to aid Bissau in the control of drug trafficking, the USA continues to partner the government in the fight against HIV, the bolstering of education, and the improvement of national assembly procedures.