Baraka (carried by its human partner Raul Ilidio) is one of the rats that sniff out landmines for Belgian organisation Apopo. — Photos: KRISTIN PALITZA/dpa
EAGERLY sniffing, Baraka dashes across a stubble field. He can’t see very well, but his sense of smell is extremely well-developed.
Baraka, is a giant hamster rat with an important job to do: find buried explosives. During his work, the rodent is strapped into a small harness that is connected to a long line via a wire.
An animal handler dressed in mine protection gear stands at each end of the line. This is because Baraka is running across an area where landmines may be buried.
The rat has already found something. He stops, sniffs intensively and scratches the earth a little. This is the sign that Baraka has discovered a mine, explains Raul Ilidio, the rat’s human work partner.
Numbered tags are placed at the edge of the field to mark the position of the explosives. Now human demining experts know exactly where to defuse the explosives.
Baraka is one of 12 giant hamster rats currently helping the Belgian organization Apopo in Angola’s Cuanza Sul province to clear landmines that were laid during the country’s 27 years of civil war.
They are called “hero rats” because the rodents literally save lives in post-war Angola, one of the countries with the most landmine victims per year worldwide.
Since the civil war, which started in 1975 and ended in 2002, more than 88,000 landmine injuries have been reported in this country of 36 million inhabitants in southern Africa. According to the international Landmine Monitor, the actual number is probably much higher.
A worker searches for mines after a giant hamster had combed the area before for the deadly devices.
Not a month without new victims
The world first became aware of the emergency in Angola at the end of the 1990s when the British Princess Lady Diana visited the civil war country and walked through a minefield in protective clothing.
The images went around the world and sparked a global debate. But the attention came too late for Angola.
Once mines are buried, clearing them is difficult, time-consuming and extremely dangerous. Twenty-two years after the end of the civil war, almost 70sq km still need to be cleared in Angola, according to the latest Landmine Monitor report. On average, the country has made progress of around 6sq km per year.
This harbours great dangers for the population: according to the report, 107 people were killed or injured by landmines in Angola in 2022. “Not a month goes by without new victims,” says Manuel Agostinho, Apopo’s project manager in Angola.
However, Apopo is making good progress with the giant hamster rats as explosive sniffers. The rodents work much more effectively than humans.
While a landmine expert with a metal detector needs two days to clear 200sq m and work while risking his or her life, a rat does the same job within half an hour, explains Agostinho.
The rats are not only fast, they are also very light, weighing a maximum of 2kg – too light to trigger an anti-personnel mine, says Shaibu Hamisi, the rat training expert at Apopo. Even a sniffer dog would not be light enough.
Every rat that is used in minefields has to undergo rigorous training. The rodents are first trained for six to eight months and then tested at regular intervals.
“The rats’ job is not one where you can make mistakes,” says Hamisi.
Accuracy is even more important than speed. Because mistakes can cost lives.
Baraka is tasked with sniffing out landmines underground in Angola's Cuanza Sul province.
Fear is part of everyday life
Thanks to the rats, more and more people in Angola can once again cultivate their fields or search for firewood in the forest without worry.
Children can roam around outdoors. The inhabitants of the village of Calulo in Cuanza Sul, around which Apopo is currently clearing mined fields, are also hoping for a similar level of security.
Every child in the village knows about the dangers that still lie hidden underground. And almost everyone knows a family that has been affected by an accident.
But for Ana José Capagaio, a single mother of seven children, the rats have come too late.
Three years ago, the 37-year-old lost her left leg. She was looking for firewood just 150m from her house when she stepped on a landmine, she explains.
The small farmer, who until then had fed her family from what she could plant and harvest, is happy to have survived.
But since the accident, Capagaio and her children have been dependent on handouts.
Her brother, Joao Capagaio, says that the villagers knew about the landmines, but not that there were so many.
Now he is watching the rats’ progress and hopes that his children will be able to grow up without the lurking danger of landmines in future.
Millions of landmines worldwide
Apopo’s rats are not only used in Angola. The explosive sniffers are also helping to clear landmines in other landmine-infested countries – Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Zimbabwe.
Agostinho hopes that their speedy work will contribute to faster progress in mine clearance. However, Angola will not be able to meet its target of having defused all mines by the end of 2025.
According to the United Nations Mine Action Programme (UNMAS), around 110 million landmines are still buried in 70 countries worldwide. If they were lined up 1m apart, they would circle the earth almost three times.
Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Ethiopia and Turkey are among the countries with the most extensive mine contamination per sq km.
As many as 2,000 people worldwide are killed or injured by landmines every month, the UN reports. Most victims are civilians, half of them children.
According to UNMAS, an anti-personnel landmine can be produced for less than €1 (RM5.07) – but it costs between €300 (RM1,521) and €1,000 (RM5,070) to defuse them. And above all, a lot of time. – dpa
