More than five thousand men and women worked in 181 municipalities of the country, managing to decontaminate 1,536,679 square meters and destroy 360 explosive devices.
The commitment stipulated by the National Government to clear 1,500,000 square meters in 2018, was fulfilled by the Brigade of Engineers of Humanitarian Demining No. 1 of the National Army, through the different techniques.
The mine clearance specialists who cleared 1,536,679 square meters in the same way found 213 antipersonnel mines, 84 elements of unexploded ordnance and 63 improvised explosive devices.
Thus, in manual demining, military personnel reached 1,474,924 square meters, with mechanical demining 54,374 square meters and 7,381 square meters with demining supported on dogs, in this case, Belgian Malinois.
In addition to achieve the goal, the Non-Technical Studies teams, thanks to information provided by the inhabitants, verified and cleared of suspected antipersonnel mines 780,390 square meters.
It should be noted that this year, the Multi Mission Heroes presented 72 municipalities to the country, reaching 92 Colombian territories, free of suspicion of antipersonnel mines.
The aforementioned achievement was announced at the ceremony of transfer of command of that Minor Operations Unit, which was led since November 2017 by Colonel Giovanni Rodr铆guez Le贸n and today it was assumed by Colonel Hoover Yarley R铆os Rom谩n.
The new commander, in the same way an officer Engineer who has been serving the institution for 27 years, assured that together with his men they will work to have Colombia free of antipersonnel mines.
Source: Military Engineers Command
