Three-day Workshop on 'Weapons Contamination in Africa' kicks off today

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 6, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The Commission of the African Union (AU) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are holding a three-day workshop on "Weapons Contamination: Addressing key challenges to meeting clearance deadline under the Mine Ban Convention and Convention on cluster Munitions", at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The workshop brings together over 60 experts from the AU Member States, partners, ICRC, technical personnel from national Mine Action Centres, demining operators, African demining centres and the United Nations (UN).

The workshop will be an opportunity to exchange views with AU Member States on key challenges in meeting clearance deadlines under the Mine Ban Convention (MBC), the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) and make recommendations. Participants will share experiences, identify the nature of assistance required by affected countries, and coordinating mobilization of the required resources.

The AUC and the ICRC envisage that the meeting will strengthen intra-African cooperation and support AU Member States as they clear and destroy anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions.