About 600 mines, unexploded ordnance defused in Azerbaijan's liberated regions
By Vafa Ismayilova
Azerbaijan's Mine Action Agency has found and rendered harmless about 600 mines and unexploded ordnance on territories liberated from Armenia's occupation in a 44-day war in 2020.
The agency said that from 5 to 10 April, 90 anti-personnel and 47 anti-tank mines, as well as 435 unexploded ordnance were found and neutralized in Karabakh.
Moreover, territories with a total area of more than 60 hectares have been cleared.
Some 20 Azerbaijani citizens, including 14 civilians were killed and 87 citizens, including 16 civilians were injured in mine explosions since the signing of the Karabakh peace deal by the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders on November 10, 2020.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on February 26 described Armenia’s failure to provide the maps of mined areas in liberated lands as the main difficulty for Azerbaijani IPDs to return to their homes. He said that this can also be considered to be a war crime as several servicemen and civilians were killed in mine blasts on liberated territories after the war.
A Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal that Baku and Yerevan signed on November 10 brought an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.
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