Saturday April 18, 2009
EGYPT: Where World War II Now Targets the Indigenous
Cam McGrath
Inter Press Service
It has been more than 65 years since the guns fell silent, but the World War II desert battlefields where Allied forces defeated Rommel's Afrika Corps are still claiming lives. Each year the casualty count grows, as Bedouins planting crops, herding livestock and collecting scrap metal are killed or maimed by rusting landmines and munitions hidden beneath the baking sands of Egypt's North West Coast.
More than 670 Egyptians have been killed and 7,500 injured by landmines in this underdeveloped region during the last 20 years, according to the Landmines Struggle Centre (LSC), a Cairo-based NGO that collects data on mine victims. "There are dozens of casualties every year, most of which go unreported," said Sami Abada, the centre's director.
read full story
Posted in: by bubblejam at 02:02 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry