The HALO Trust has started to clear unexploded ordnance resulting from recent fighting between Karabakh and Azerbaijani forces.

Between April 1-5, 2016 intense fighting broke out in Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) all along the front line between Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Ground fighting was confined to areas close to the Line of Contact (LOC) but artillery fire penetrated more than 10km into Nagorno-Karabakh.

A ceasefire was agreed on April 5 and on April 7, HALO began to assess the unexploded ordnance contamination resulting from the fighting. Clearance commenced the following day and we now have three seven-person Battle Area Clearance teams conducting emergency clearance.

It was quickly clear that the greatest humanitarian priority is the threat from cluster munitions in the villages of NerkinHoratagh and Mokhratagh, close to the town of Martakert in north east NK. The small bomblets, known as submunitions, released by the cluster munition rockets cover an area between the villages that we estimate to be two square kilometres.

Typically, up to 20% of submunitions fail to operate as intended and they lay on or in the ground, armed and sensitive to movement. The M095 submunition that HALO is currently finding in NK is dispensed from a rocket containing 104 of them. Each truck-mounted launcher can fire 26 rockets at a time so a single firing of a launcher can leave 500 or more submunitions unexploded on the ground.

In the past ten days HALO and Nagorno-Karabakh’s Emergency Situations Service have destroyed over 150 unexploded sub-munitions from the recent fighting. Nerkin Horatagh farmer, Gavrush Vahanyan, commented:

“The village is surrounded by these dangerous bombs and we’re afraid that our children will play with them and that they will explode.”

HALO’s program manager, Yuri Shahramanyan, added: “It is fortunate that HALO has a well-trained local capacity that has been able to respond immediately. This emergency clearance is vital and we are pleased to be able to support the local services, while continuing with our work to clear all known landmines in Karabakh by 2020.”