The Peninsula minefield in Mozambique's Inhambane province measures 23 kilometres in length. Laid during the civil war to "protect" the provincial capital, it is still a threat to the population: in Nhaduga, an area which stretches some two kilometres along the minefield, five people were killed, two injured and a significant number of life-stock lost. Most of the explosives were laid right next to streets and paths; the first mine was found inches away from a track that is used by more than 100 people every day - a family of eight lived only a few steps away. Handicap International is now running a mine clearance programme in the area to prevent further casualties and to allow for agriculture to be resumed.

A legacy of the war, landmines are still taking their toll years after the return to peace. Nhaduga is a typical example. Before the conflict, 500 families lived here: only 200 have stayed. In between abandoned houses, coconut and cashew trees grow on the fertile land that people are afraid to enter for fear of stepping on one of the lethal remains of the bloody civil conflict.

Some 1.5 million landmines are estimated to be buried in Mozambique. "Yet it is not so much the number of mines we are concerned about, as their exact location", says Assemu Tameru, a UNV cartographer from Ethiopia who is working with the National Demining Commission (CND). It is the mines that lie in the densely populated areas, along the country's roads and powerlines, that are of primary importance. In the office building in Maputo that houses the CND team, all obtainable information is collected. Detector surveys and interviews with people in mined areas help to determine the exact coordinates of the minefields.

Assemu Tameru assembles the data into thematic maps that specify not only the location of mines, but also of hospitals with surgical facilities and airstrips. "This helps to facilitate the CND's task of coordinating the work of all demining organisations operating in the country ", he explains. A look at the map showing the mine situation in Mozambique reveals why careful coordination is an absolute necessity. In some areas, particularly in the South, the sprinkle of symbols denoting the occurrence of mines becomes so dense that they are hardly distinguishable - meaning work for decades to come, since mine clearing is not only a dangerous, but also a time-consuming task. To a large extent, it has to be done manually - even where mechanical devices can be used, a manual "check" is required afterwards. More than 30,000 anti- personnel mines have been cleared so far, along with a smaller number of anti-group and anti-tank mines. Yet against the overall figure of explosives that still have to be unearthed, it's but a drop in the bucket. Against this background, the CND team is setting priorities for demining to support the rebuilding of the country's infrastructure, but first of all to help prevent incidents like one in Murrupula, where a little boy went out to find mangos, but lost his life instead.