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Children killed by old Mozambiquan bomb
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Independent Online
November 20 2009
A Mozambican newspaper reported on Friday that three children had been killed and two seriously injured in northern Mozambique after accidentally exploding a mortar bomb left over from the country's wars.
Noticias, a daily paper, reported that children in the province of Niassa had found the explosive while playing on Tuesday and had thrown it against a tree, causing it to explode.
Three children had died instantly and two others were still being treated for their injuries at a hospital, it said.
Parts of the south-east African country are still littered with buried explosives, most of which date back to the country's 1976-1992 civil war, which broke out after independence. Others were planted by former colonial power Portugal.
More than 1 million people were killed in the civil war between the ruling Marxist Liberation Front of Mozambique, or Frelimo, and the Mozambican Resistance rebels, known as Renamo and backed by apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia.
Landmines, particularly, were used liberally by both sides.
The accident occurred in an area that was formerly a Renamo guerrilla base.
International aid agencies have demined vast tracts of the country, but 10 million landmines and other explosives are still believed to lurk beneath the ground.
Each year, several people are killed or maimed by the devices.
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