Over 220 hectares cleared of mines and UXO in Azerbaijan’s Gazakh district

Since April 2024, the Azerbaijan Mine Action Agency (ANAMA) has been conducting demining operations in the territories of the Gazakh district recently returned to Azerbaijan. According to the agency, a total of 223.7 hectares have been cleared of mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO).

“As of today, 1,059 anti-personnel mines, 99 anti-tank mines, and 49 unexploded ordnance have been detected and neutralised,” ANAMA reported to local media.

In a weekly update, the agency noted that last month alone, 7,022.1 hectares of territory in the liberated areas were cleared of mines and UXO.

The territories in question were returned to Azerbaijan following delimitation work last year, which determined a 12.7-kilometre-long border line. This process restored 6.5 square kilometres covering four villages of the Gazakh district: Baganis Ayrim, Ashagi Askipara, Kheyrimli, and Gizilhajili. On May 24, the State Border Guard Service of Azerbaijan officially took control of these areas.

Following Azerbaijan’s victory in the Second Karabakh War in early November 2020, the country began extensive demining operations in territories that had been under Armenian occupation for nearly three decades. The work has faced significant challenges due to Armenia’s initial refusal to provide maps showing the locations of mines.

Eventually, Azerbaijan obtained minefield maps from Armenia for previously occupied districts, including Aghdam, Fuzuli, and Zangilan, which reportedly indicated the coordinates of 189,000 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. Armenia also supplied mine maps for other liberated territories. These maps were provided in exchange for the release of dozens of Armenian saboteurs detained by Azerbaijan after the war. However, President Ilham Aliyev noted that the accuracy of the maps did not exceed 25 per cent.

ANAMA has reported that, in practice, the maps supplied by Armenia were only two per cent effective for actual mine-clearing operations. Azerbaijani government estimates, supported by international experts, suggest that it will take nearly 30 years and approximately $25 billion to fully address the demining challenges across all affected territories.

Since the end of the 2020 war, landmines have killed or injured around 400 people in Azerbaijan, adding to more than 3,400 victims since the 1990s. A significant proportion of casualties have been women and children.

Armenia’s continued planting of mines in civilian areas, along with the provision of inaccurate minefield data, has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in these regions.

By Tamilla Hasanova