“In the liberated territories, from November 2020 to March 10, 2026, as a result of demining operations carried out by the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) and other organizations involved in humanitarian demining activities, a total of 256,204 hectares of territory have been cleared of mines and other explosive remnants of war. A total of 241,470 mines and other explosive ordnance, including 41,056 anti-personnel mines, 23,106 anti-tank mines, and 177,308 unexploded ordnance, have been discovered and neutralized”.
This information was provided by ANAMA in response to an inquiry from Modern.az.
The organization stated that, according to international demining standards, the process of clearing territories from mines is divided into 2 stages: mitigation of the negative impact of mines and complete mine clearance:
“The initial stage covers demining projects implemented in accordance with the priorities defined within the framework of the Great Return program. The stage of mitigating the negative impact of mines involves creating conditions suitable for the safe execution of reconstruction works and for people's safe and sustainable living.
The second stage is the complete liberation of territories from the mine threat, including areas along the former line of contact.
It should be noted that, precisely for the purpose of ensuring safety and preventing potential mine incidents, the activity of temporarily conserving and fencing off areas highly contaminated with mines and other explosive ordnance is carried out. This approach is an international practice applied not only in Azerbaijan but in all mine-contaminated countries and is considered a primary means of ensuring safety.
In the liberated territories, humanitarian demining activities are carried out with the support of manual demining, mine detection dogs, and special demining equipment.
Demining methodologies are determined according to the terrain and contamination level of the area.
The support of dogs is used in operations during all technical survey and demining operations, as well as in the search of houses and public facilities. A dog's primary target is the scent of explosive material. When the dog detects that scent, it signals its handler. In clearance operations along each lane, the operation of 2 mine detection dogs (MDD) is carried out; first, one MDD checks, and then a second MDD re-checks to ensure that no mine has been missed in the area.
During clearance operations, equipment such as detectors and magnetic locators for detecting mines and explosive devices, deep search devices, DGPS for accurate acquisition of geographical coordinates in fields, special-purpose mechanical demining tools in survey and clearance operations, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles for more precise study and survey of the area are used", the statement says.
