Africa-Press – Namibia. UNSUSPECTING children of the Omutwewomunhu village in the Ohangwena Region picked up a landmine in the bush, brought it home and used it as a toy for several days.
The heavy “metal” was used in weightlifting exercises and also served as a stool at the children’s playground in their parents’ mahangu field. According to Nampol’s Inspector Abner Kaume Itumba, several adults were aware of the heavy metal’s presence but did not realize that it was a lethal object.
However, a passerby who saw the object children were playing with immediately identified it as a landmine. The Police’s explosives experts were notified and positively identified the object as a Yugoslavian manufactured TM-46 landmine.
“It was safely detonated on the spot,” said Itumba, adding that, despite the demining efforts of the past three decades, the former war zone is still not totally free of landmines and unexploded ordnances.
“Our slogan is still valid: Don’t touch it, report it,” he said.
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