Hazvinei Mwanaka
Chiredzi/Sango border post
One sunny morning in 2010, Hlengani Mudzikiti decided to look for his herd of cattle that had gone for grazing. Navigating his way in the densely filled minefield, he followed his beasts’ hoof prints, carefully stepping where the cattle did. This had been his tactic for many years until this day. After walking for a while, he decided to step on a bushy grass near the cattle’s tracks and little did he know that this was his last day of using his two feet.
“Immediately I felt a sharp pain on my left leg and heard an explosion, and I knew I had stepped on the landmines. I found myself on the ground blood gushing out of my leg. With pain I tore my shirt trying to stop the flow of blood, I tried standing up but I failed,” he recalled.
He spent the rest of the day on the spot until he was found the following morning in a pool of blood.
“I was carried out to Chikombedzi hospital and later on to Chiredzi general hospital where I got treatment. Landmines have affected us so much, I am no longer productive as I used to, and mind you I have a family to feed. Nowadays, I just wake up sit here doing nothing, hopefully government and APOPO will chip in and help us,” narrated Mudzikiti.
For over a decade this has been his way of living.
“We are grateful for the demining exercise that is taking place in the area. Everyone is going to benefit, from people to animals. We are near the Mozambican border so we hope a lot of activities will take place,” said Mudzikiti.
APOPO Mine Action, a global humanitarian organisation that clears landmines and other explosive remnants of war, partnered with Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Defense to survey and clear 26, 023 km along the frontage of a Cordon Sanitaire minefield and Service road.
The Rhodesian forces between 1976 and 1979 laid the landmines to prevent Zimbabwean freedom fighters from entering Mozambique to get military aid.
With the assistance from the United States government, APOPO received USD $4 million for the project between October 2020 and October 2024 and commenced demining in the area in 2021.
The land along the Sengwe wildlife corridor is the hub for wildlife migration linking Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique. Contaminated with landmines, the land has been a death trap to humans, livestock and wild animals.
In an interview, Johannes Nzua, APOPO’s operations manager noted that landmines bring in challenges to communities.
“The local community has been deprived of grazing and agricultural land compromising food security, eco-tourism has been hampered particularly the Great Limpopo Trans-Frontier Park, socio- cultural interaction disturbed and people killed and maimed,” said Nzua.
According to Nzua the locals had devised traditional ways to use from one place to another in the densely populated minefield which exposed them more to the risk, whilst others have erected fences to demarcate areas with landmines and those without.
“To achieve our mandate APOPO is adopting a 3-phase land release system comprising of non-technical survey, technical survey and clearance. We will be able to determine where mines are and type of mines. We need to have field visits, risk assessment and interview local communities and gather as much information as possible, this is a critical area that needs to be prioritized,” he added.
According to APOPO people are not living in the minefields, but adjacent to where minefields are.
“Every operation we do especially the clearance part is monitored by the Zimbabwe Mine Action Centre (ZIMAC), we just don’t do things on our own we are guided, we have guidelines that we follow,” said Nzua.
Nzua added that after completion of the demining exercise the land will be used for sustainable agriculture and livestock farming, community and infrastructural development projects, and some of the cleared land will enable the extension of wildlife reserves and ecotourism activities in the border area.
photo credit:APOPO
Yellow line is the border line… green is the primary minefield already cleared by government and redline APOPO has been tasked to demine it.
Progress of landmine clearance by sector
“On the progress map in green is the land cleared by APOPO, blue represents ongoing sectors and red are the remaining sectors. So if you complete a sector, you hand it over to ZIMAC, so at national level we are going to witness the handover ceremony of the land,” he said.
As of early October, APOPO has made progress towards clearing the landmines. Statistics show that more than 60% of the mine infested land has been cleared with sectors including Sango boarder, Chikukutsi, Gate 1, Gate 2, Mashengete, Meke and Machichi already completed and cleared by ZIMAC as landmine free area. Pelani, Mahoto and Dhochi areas have been completed but pending clearance from ZIMAC. As of October, the demining team was working at Madhambalale 1, and left with Madhambalale 2, Shashanhau and Shanatsime to complete their task area.
Devices deactivated
As of early October the covered area has seen demining of 9 216 R2M2, 8 688 Boosters, 4 AT mines and 7 UXO landmine giving a total of 17915 devices deactivated and destroyed, paving way for productive economic activity.
Community education and awareness beneficiaries
Community education and awareness has been a key step made by APOPO where the organisation has been sensitizing the communities on the dangers of landmines and appropriate action to take in form of emergencies.
So far 9162 people benefitted from the awareness, and this comprise 1280 boys, 1207 girls, 2772 men and 3903 women.
However, despite its successes, the demining exercise in Sango border post according to APOPO is faced with some challenges among them the shortage of water.
“The task is situated away from the natural water sources, water is a critical resource for safe excavations during our operations, if the land is hard we need to soften it by applying water before excavations, so delivering water to the teams comes with many logistical constraints. Accessibility of the area is also a challenge especially during the onset of the rains at times we lose some days because of this.
“Through the recommendations made by the national authority, we no longer move mines now, once a mine is identified in the excavation, it is then destroyed,” said Nzua.
When APOPO Mine action started the landmine clearance project in Zimbabwe in 2021 it brought relief to the Dumisa, Chilotlela and other communities situated along the Zimbabwe Mozambican border.
Margaret Mudzikiti daughter of Hlengani Mudzikiti speaking in vernacular said she was affected so much when his father was injured by the landmines.
“I am so happy that these landmines are now being removed, we are learning a lot about these landmines, we are not supposed to touch them and even if our livestock get astray we should just leave them behind. We hope that if the landmines are removed, we will be able to look for firewood and our livestock. We appeal for compensation for those people injured by the landmines,” she said.
Isaac Matimise, Chilotlela village head said the demining exercise is helping a lot.
“Before the demining process, we feared for our lives, we were confined in one place. No one could move freely, women and young girls could not fetch firewood in the area, but this is now water under the bridge. We are reaching out to different areas and our cattle can graze anywhere. By the end of the process we hope to also use the land for bigger farming projects.
“As the village head, we have a greater role to play in the community, sensitizing people about the dangers of landmines,” said Matimise.
Chikutire Takudzwa a local teacher at Chilotlela primary school near Sango border post which has around 56 children said the locals have challenges moving around in places where there are landmines, as they just explode when they are stepped on.
“People ended up having some routes they could take but for animals they could stray and get affected, hence many animals were lost. Some landmines were near the fields and river channels which made it difficult for locals to utilize their land and get water. When the demining exercise began, it came as relief to us, not only are they removing the landmines, our children are being taught about the dangers of landmines and we are grateful for the process, we understand by the end the cleared land will be accessible to everyone.
One young woman from Dumisa village, Lillian Mudzikiti said the removal of landmines brought smiles to many people’s faces in the area.
“We could not move around, if cattle strayed we couldn’t go to look for them, they ended up affected by the -. Some of our fathers ended up affected because they will be looking for their animals.
“The removal of landmines has helped a lot. We are appealing for assistance as young women for the land to be utilized well, we anticipate to have bigger projects like schools, poultry, clinics and boreholes since we have water challenges in the area,” she said.
Another villager, Malight Maluleke from Dumisa village under village head Xirhilele speaking in vernacular said they had challenges with grazing and farming land.
“APOPO through their demining exercises helped in increasing space for agriculture, we will be able to grow variety of crops and our animals will have more space for grazing,” she said.
Responding to questions sent to him, Chiredzi Rural District Council Chief Executive Officer, Alles Baloyi said the landmine problem has been there since the war of liberation and were being used by the white regime to try and curb the infiltration of the country by freedom fighters.
“Landmines remained there for over 40 years now and have affected a lot of people mainly those around ward 15 and other wards around such as 12 and 14. Definitely there are economic losses that has been incurred by these communities, the communities there survive on livestock as well as wildlife business.
“Council has got a number of concessions there and the wild animals have been maimed and some of them no longer want to go back there, so there is a big challenge in terms of their survival whilst domestic animals face the same plight,” he said.
Baloyi added that safari businesses in the area were not spared as operators could not access some of the areas because of landmines.
“The bigger problem is people who have been killed and maimed by these landmines stepping on them unknowingly since they have been there for so long, some have been covered in soils or vegetation and people don’t really realise that there is a life in danger in all these places.
“This time since government is working, with APOPO we believe that there will be great improvement. The demining process at the end will have a long lasting benefit to our communities, wildlife, safari business and the district in general. We would be very pleased to receive back the clean land so that our people will benefit in all facets, so it’s very important for the demining exercise to be concluded,” he said,
According to Baloyi movement between Mozambique and Zimbabwe has been limited because of the landmines.
“I would not say that there are people already benefiting, but I would say there are a lot of people that will benefit soon after the land is released to the communities. Council will plan so that we will have a bigger space for projects, and have investors come to Sango, so there is great economic potential. We estimate that 10000 families will benefit from that,” he added .
ZIMAC director Brigadier General Mkhululi Bhika Ncube said landmines affect communities.
“Landmines restrict access to services for example schools and hospitals and contaminated land cannot be used for agriculture, tourism or infrastructural development.
“Landmines hinder free movement of people, also Chiredzi District is a cattle ranching area, and mines cause untold suffering to the communities when their cattle stray into the minefields and hit by mines,” he said.
He also noted that it is not only APOPO working on that minefield, the National Mine Clearance Unit (NMCU) an Army outfit is also doing demining from Mwenezi river towards Sango Border Post.
He added The total land between Mwenezi River and Sango Border Post was 7,2km2 and so far 0,3km2 was cleared by NMCU and 5,9 km2 by APOPO (figures as of early November).
“The demining process country wide was envisaged to be completed by 31 December 2025, however, this was disturbed by among others, natural disasters such as Covid-19. The completion is now envisaged to take a further two to three years,” he said.