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The five-day war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008 left Georgia with a dangerous legacy of cluster bombs, landmines and other explosives. Hundreds of people died and over 150,000 were forced to flee their homes.

Shida Kartli, one of the country’s most productive agricultural areas, was badly affected. Families, unable to farm their land, were plunged into poverty.

By the end of 2009, HALO had cleared Shida Kartli, so people could return home and cultivate their land again. Since then, we have cleared thousands of hectares of land in Georgia, including a minefield near a former Soviet military base. The area is now the site of a reservoir which will supply fresh water to the 147,000 inhabitants of Kutaisi when it is completed.

There are still six minefields to clear in Georgia. Chief among them is Red Bridge, where 13 people have been killed and four injured, including Serkan Musaev. He was helping his friend look for lost cattle when he stepped on a landmine, losing his right leg. We are urgently seeking the permissions needed to clear Red Bridge, so more lives are not put at risk.

Near the village of Chonto, our team discovered 30 huge aircraft bombs amongst the wreckage of a plane shot down during the Russian-Georgian war. They were in a highly unstable state, threatening the lives of local families. Overcoming the challenging mountainous terrain, we carefully destroyed the bombs, ensuring a safe future for the people of Chonto.

The war of 1992-3 resulted in tens of thousands of landmines being laid across Abkhazia. For 14 years HALO worked to make land safe until, in 2011, Abkhazia was declared landmine free.

But a hidden danger remained. It emerged that, during the fighting, people were keeping salvaged explosives in their homes in order to sell the valuable metal for scrap. Alick Azhiba contacted us when he feared a landmine he had hidden during the war now posed a risk to his two young girls. We found it buried beneath the floor, directly below the cot of one-year-old Anastasia.

Decades after the war ended, these unexploded items—in homes and ammunition stores—continue to threaten lives. In 2017, a military ammunition store close to the village of Primorsky, exploded, killing three people. Explosives were scattered across the village, putting thousands of people like Jambul at risk.

HALO works to build trust with local communities in order to locate and destroy explosives safely. We oversee the Abkhazia Mine Action Office, which keeps detailed reports and maps of areas that have been made safe—a vital resource for anyone developing the land. We also support development by repairing damaged roads and bridges in rural areas, to prevent people getting cut off from essential services such as schools, doctors and markets.

Two years on from the explosion at Primorsky, we have cleared people’s homes, fields and gardens so families can rebuild their lives. We will continue to work until the surrounding land is safe.

Elena and her grandchildren will never forget the day that explosives rained down on Primorsky, when a nearby ammunition store exploded. But for the past two years, HALO has worked to clear the thousands of explosives that covered the village, so that families can begin to recover.