Cost Effectiveness of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Demining Programs

Long after anti-personnel landmines (AP) were planted to gain military advantage in battle, they continue to destroy lives by killing and maiming civilians and livestock, inhibiting productivity and preventing economies from developing in poor, third world countries. Landmines contribute to political instability in regions vital to the United States. The U. S. Department of State claims that there are approximately 85 to 200 million mines in 63 countries, producing approximately 15,000 casualties per year, an average of 70 people per day, or 500 people every week, most of them innocent civilians (DOS 1994). Of these, an estimated 9,500 people are killed each year (GHE 1995). Both Ethiopia and Eritrea have approximately 500,000-1,000,000 landmines according to the Department of State’s Hidden Killers. According to Mintz, twenty percent of mine victims are children, with about half the victims of the world’s estimated 100 million landmines non-soldiers (Mintz1996), although Bonnie Benwick claims that the estimated number of landmines may be overinflated (Benwick 1998). This paper will attempt to analyze the available data to perform a cost-effectiveness study of the U.S.-sponsored Ethiopian (ET) and Eritrean (ER) Demining Programs. This analysis may eventually be used as evaluation criteria to help determine if the United States should maintain its current level of operations or continue to expand demining into more countries