In October 2016, a brand-new DIGGER D-250 demining machine arrived in Angola at the HALO Trust operations centre. About two years earlier, at a demonstration day here in Switzerland, representatives from the HALO Trust, the Canton of Bern, the US State Department and the Digger Foundation came up with a dream: a project to complete the demining of the Angolan province Huambo using a DIGGER D-250. In October 2016, this dream was about to become reality.
This was not the first project in that specific area, because demining in Angola started there nearly twenty-two years ago. But by using a machine, the speed of demining has been increased dramatically.
Two and a half years after the arrival of the DIGGER D-250, demining of the province was completed! (Now only one minefield remains because of its problematic location near a military base).
This is why, when we look at a map showing the known minefields in Angola in August 2019, a huge area in the centre of the country now free of minefields (except for the one already mentioned) jumps out at us: it is 82% the size of Switzerland.
That is the Huambo province.
The dream has come true.
