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75 shells, mine found in Azerbaijan's border village

20 February 2017 15:43 (UTC+04:00)
75 shells, mine found in Azerbaijan's border village

By Rashid Shirinov

A number of unexploded ordnances (UXOs) have been found in a village of Azerbaijan's Tovuz region.

Azerbaijan's Interior Ministry told Trend that employees of Tovuz region's Police and State Security Service departments discovered 75 shells, a mine, 66 mine fuses, three grenades and 139 bullets in the region's Vahidli village.

The Vahidli village is located near the Azerbaijani-Armenia border.

The UXOs were transferred to Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA).

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

ANAMA was established in 1998 for planning and coordination, management and monitoring of mine action related activities all over the country.

The problem of unexploded ordnance in the country can be divided into the areas of Azerbaijan that are still under the occupation of Armenian forces and those areas that have been liberated. The project is designed to create indigenous capacity to undertake survey, mapping and clearance in currently liberated areas and to prepare for dealing with the UXO problem in occupied areas after their liberation.

ANAMA cleared more than 393,832,826 square meters of Azerbaijan’s territory, discovered and defused over 754,010 pieces of unexploded ordnance since the beginning of its activity.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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