British MP urges his government to support Azerbaijan's demining initiative

Member of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament, Chairman of the Parliamentary Group on Explosive Ordnance Threats Matthew Offord has called on his government to support Azerbaijan's demining initiative.

The MP, speaking at the "Discussions on Sustainable Development Goals", said that he familiarised himself with the demining works carried out in Azerbaijan last May, Report informs.

Offord emphasised the impact of humanitarian demining not only on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals but also on positive results in a number of other areas.

The MP called on the British government to support the initiative of Azerbaijan, which envisages the declaration of humanitarian demining as the 18th Sustainable Development Goal by the UN.

From November 2020 to July 2023, 18 per cent of Azerbaijan’s liberated territories in the Karabakh region, equaling 42,635 hectares, have been cleared of 61,163 landmines and unexploded ordnance. In 2021, approximately $40 million was allocated from the state budget for mine action. Over 40,000 hectares of land are scheduled for demining in 2023.

The ongoing extensive mine clearance campaign by Azerbaijan could not prevent the killings of Azerbaijanis by landmines after the 2020 war. Since the end of the 2020 Karabakh war, 331 Azerbaijanis have been affected by Armenian landmines, resulting in 64 deaths and 267 injuries, of which 49 and 103 are civilians, respectively. In June 2021, two Azerbaijani journalists were killed in mine a explosion. In September of this year, mine blasts claimed the lives of four members of the Azerbaijani police.

In total, 3,410 Azerbaijanis, including 357 children and 38 women, have been killed or injured as a result of mine explosions since 1991 to date.