At least 40 years to clear landmines and other explosives from Iraq and Syria: UN

It will take 40 to 50 years to clear the mines, improvised explosive devices and other unexploded ordnance from Iraq and Syria, the United Nations said Tuesday.

“We are looking at decades of work for these countries to look like post-World War II Europe where we still find some unexploded ordnance here and there,” Agnes Marcaillou, director of the United Nations Mine Action Service, told a news conference marking International Mine Awareness Day.

She said her office, which also deals with IEDs and unexploded ordnance, is looking at a “ballpark figure” of between US$170 million to US$180 million a year to clean up the areas retaken from the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq.

Marcaillou said that figure includes US$50 million annually needed just to rid weaponry from Mosul.

Iraqi forces and a US-led international coalition have been engaged in a months-long operation to retake Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State extremist group. In January, Iraqi authorities declared eastern Mosul “fully liberated.” Fighting is now underway to recapture the city’s western side.

Marcaillou said making Iraq and Syria safe will require a complex, sophisticated effort of “huge magnitude,” but she said it can be done.