Central America declared free of anti-person mines after Nicaragua claims its territory clear

Central America declared free of anti-person mines

GENEVA — A group that works to eliminate anti-personnel mines worldwide says Nicaragua has become the last country in Central America to clear its territory of the banned weapon.

The Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining, or GICHD, says Nicaragua removed and destroyed its last anti-personnel mine on April 13.

An official at Nicaragua’s mission to the U.N. in Geneva, Norman Somarriba, says a formal announcement will be made Wednesday at a meeting of signatories to the 1997 Ottawa Convention requiring states to destroy land mines in their territory.

GICHD said in a statement Tuesday that most of the more than 135,600 anti-personnel mines in Nicaragua were left over from the civil war that ended in 1989.