An Estonian mine clearance expert was killed on Saturday when an unexploded mine blew up. He has been named as . . .[restrict]Kaido Keerdo. He was working for the Danish charity DCA which has been clearing mines in Libya since May.
Keerdo came to Libya late last year.
The explosion happened in Dafniyah, near Misrata, where DFA have been working for several weeks clearing landmines laid by Qaddafi forces last year.
Keerdo featured in a news report on mine clearance in Libya by Al Jazeera TV earlier this year.
He is the first member of the DCA team to be killed in Libya. Two others were seriously wounded, one of them loosing a hand, defusing a Chinese mine in the same area late last year.
The United Nations’ Mine Action Service could not immediately comment on the incident.
DCA Mine Action has defused or exploded over 2,000 mines in Libya since last May removing them from not just fields and roads but hospitals and schools as well. Several Libyans have ben injured or killed by mines
DCA is one of the major international mine clearance charities. It is currently also involved in mine action programmes in Albania, Eritrea, Lebanon, Sudan and Ingushetia.
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