Africa: Well-known and invisible killer littered throughout Africa

They threaten the peace, stability and development of the world's poorest continent and kill or mutilate 12,000 people each year. This was the reason that African governments agreed recently to a landmark initiative aimed at eliminating an estimated 40 million landmines from the continent. At the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa, a new "common African position" was unveiled on 17 September 2004. It aims to ensure that the continent becomes an anti-personnel mine (APM) free zone, with a framework largely centred on the 1997 Ottawa Convention. The initiative also stresses inter-African cooperation as a vital issue in successful mine clearance and calls for more support for victims and greater transparency by governments.