Landmines in Colombia Biggest Challenge for Post-War Nation

After decades of war, the Colombian government has finally negotiated peace with the rebel group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

However, despite the ceasefire, Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said that there are still landmines around part of the South American nation, which remains to be the biggest challenge that they are facing at the moment.

Villegas noted that "Demining Colombia will take a generation, tens of thousands of specialists and lots of international aid."

Soldiers and members of the FARC alike are working together to clear the said mines, but as BBC pointed out, after more than five decades of conflict, Colombia has become one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, and it will take some time to clear them.

Currently, Colombia is only behind Afghanistan and Cambodia when it comes to incidents caused by landmines and improvised explosive devices. However, the high number is not due to the FARC alone -- while the rebel group is currently in negotiation with the Colombian government, another left-wing faction, called the National Liberation Army (ELN) is still continuing their fight. On top of that, drug gangs who are looking to protect their crops from the counternarcotics police, are also planting said mines.

In a feature by The New York Times, searching for the said landmines is a painstaking job that needs more help if they are to be cleared in the near future. As of April, the specialized military unit that is helping clear these landmines are only doing so in areas free of guerilla presence, which has slowed the process remarkably.

Things are expected to go a bit faster soon. Right now, the Colombian army is preparing a large-scale program to train soldiers to clear the mines, and Villegas said that they are planning to bring the number of trained personnel from 600 to 10,000 by mid-2016.

The government shared that mines and munitions already claimed 11,073 victims, including over 2,000 who died from 1990 to March 2015. Most of these victims are civilians, with a large number of them being children.

The Colombian government and the FARC have been negotiating for over two years, but are planning to finally close negotiations by March 2016. However, not all citizens are assured that an agreement will allow for a peaceful Colombia in the future. For instance, a citizen named Duban Londono said that the promise is just another one that the government will fail to keep. He told The New York Times, "They can take the mines from one place, but how many more mines are there in other places. Here in Colombia, we will never see the end of war."