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'New Hope' as 38 More Colombian Municipalities Cleared of Landmines

Reuters

   PITALITO, COLOMBIA - Thirty-eight more Colombian municipalities are
   considered free of landmines and unexploded ordinance, President Ivan
   Duque said Tuesday, as civilian and military efforts to remove
   improvised explosives continue despite ongoing conflict in some areas.

   Colombia was once among the countries where people suffered the most
   injuries from landmines, one result of more than five decades of armed
   conflict between leftist guerrillas, crime gangs, right-wing
   paramilitary groups and the government.

   More than 700 of Colombia's 1,122 municipalities once had landmines,
   but 391 of those are now certified as mine-free.

   "Today we make history because we are freeing 38 municipalities from
   suspicion of mines," Duque told attendees at a ceremony in the Andean
   country's southwest. "Thirty-eight municipalities have said goodbye to
   this tragedy; they have the light of new hope."

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