Skip to content
The HALO Trust
Contact Us | Recruitment | Media Enquiries
Donate
  • What we do

    • What we do

    • Our work

      • Our work

      • Teaching people to stay safe

      • Managing weapons and ammunition

      • Clearing landmines and explosives

    • Our impact

      • Our impact

      • Protecting lives

      • Making land safe

      • Creating jobs

      • Empowering women

    Our work

    • Teaching people to stay safe
    • Managing weapons and ammunition
    • Clearing landmines and explosives

    Our impact

    • Protecting lives
    • Making land safe
    • Creating jobs
    • Empowering women

    Featured

    Beyond Bombs Podcast

  • Where we work

    • Where we work

    • Africa

      • Africa

      • Angola

      • Cote D’Ivoire

      • Ethiopia

      • Ghana

      • Guinea Bissau

      • Kenya

      • Malawi

      • Mauritania

      • Mozambique

      • Nigeria

      • Somalia and Somaliland

      • Togo

      • Zimbabwe

    • Europe and Caucasus

      • Europe and Caucasus

      • Kosovo

      • Moldova

      • Nagorno Karabakh

      • Ukraine

    • South Asia

      • South Asia

      • Cambodia

      • Laos

      • Myanmar

      • Solomon Islands

      • Sri Lanka

    • Central Asia

      • Central Asia

      • Afghanistan

    • Latin America

      • Latin America

      • Colombia

      • El Salvador

      • Guatemala

      • Honduras

    • Middle East

      • Middle East

      • Iraq

      • Libya

      • Syria

      • West Bank

      • Yemen

    Africa

    • Angola
    • Cote D’Ivoire
    • Ethiopia
    • Ghana
    • Guinea Bissau
    • Kenya
    • Malawi
    • Mauritania
    • Mozambique
    • Nigeria
    • Somalia and Somaliland
    • Togo
    • Zimbabwe

    Europe and Caucasus

    • Kosovo
    • Moldova
    • Nagorno Karabakh
    • Ukraine

    South Asia

    • Cambodia
    • Laos
    • Myanmar
    • Solomon Islands
    • Sri Lanka

    Central Asia

    • Afghanistan

    Latin America

    • Colombia
    • El Salvador
    • Guatemala
    • Honduras

    Middle East

    • Iraq
    • Libya
    • Syria
    • West Bank
    • Yemen

    Featured

    Beyond Bombs Podcast

  • About us

    • About us

    • Who we are

      • Who we are

      • Our history

      • Our people

      • Our partners

      • Stichting HALO Europe

    • Governance

      • Governance

      • Our trustees

      • Medical governance

      • Policies and safeguarding

      • Reports and strategy

    Who we are

    • Our history
    • Our people
    • Our partners
    • Stichting HALO Europe

    Governance

    • Our trustees
    • Medical governance
    • Policies and safeguarding
    • Reports and strategy

    Featured

    Beyond Bombs Podcast

  • Get involved

    • Get involved

    • Give

      • Give

      • Donate now

      • Donate monthly

      • Legacy giving

      • Corporate giving

      • Fundraising promise

    • Raise money

      • Raise money

      • Events and ideas

    • Join us

      • Join us

      • Newsletter sign up

    Give

    • Donate now
    • Donate monthly
    • Legacy giving
    • Corporate giving
    • Fundraising promise

    Raise money

    • Events and ideas

    Join us

    • Newsletter sign up

    Featured

    Beyond Bombs Podcast

  • Latest

    • Latest

    • Special Projects

      • Special Projects

      • Baptism Site

      • 100 Women in Demining in Angola

      • Protecting the Okavango

      • The Border Project

      • Cultivating Peace in the Horn of Africa

      • Women in WAM

    • HALO Updates

      • HALO Updates

      • News

      • Stories

      • Historias de America Latina

      • Beyond Bombs Podcast

      • In the media

    Special Projects

    • Baptism Site
    • 100 Women in Demining in Angola
    • Protecting the Okavango
    • The Border Project
    • Cultivating Peace in the Horn of Africa
    • Women in WAM

    HALO Updates

    • News
    • Stories
    • Historias de America Latina
    • Beyond Bombs Podcast
    • In the media

    Featured

    Beyond Bombs Podcast

  • Contact Us

  • Recruitment

  • Media Enquiries

Donate

Clearance of Qorilugud town

18th April 2016 | Somalia & Somaliland | Clearing explosives

Nimco lives in Qorilugud, a town of 1,800 people in the Togdheer region of the Somaliland with her husband and three children. Her family’s primary source of income comes from the occasional sale of one of their flock of fifteen goats, worth a total of around $600, so access to Qorilgud’s plentiful wells where they water their herd is vital for Nimco’s livelihood. This was the reason the family settled in the town in 2014 following a drought. However, Nimco was unaware at the time that they built their house directly on an anti-tank minefield on the outskirts of town.

Realisation of the risk they were facing came abruptly on the 4th of November 2015 when a military truck, passing just a few metres from Nimco’s house, initiated an anti-tank mine, instantly killing the driver and severely injuring all three passengers.

“I was outside my house when I heard a huge bang. Then there was a lot of smoke and dust. Pieces of the vehicle flew everywhere and bodies lay around. I was very worried about the children but God spared us.”

The truck had been passing over an area where Nimco and her children walk every day but its weight had been enough to set off the mine. As the soft soil at Qorilugud shifts during the rainy season, landmines often become more sensitive or are uncovered completely. Three children were killed and two seriously injured after striking one uncovered device with a stone in April 2014. Three more children died the following month trying to burn a grenade they found in the minefield; of the sixteen accident victims at Qorilugud since 2012, half were children below the age of 16.

Unsurprisingly, Nimco is deeply concerned for the safety of her own children but there is nowhere else to move in the tightly packed village so she and her family have stayed put.

“I know we live on the minefield but none of us in life know when we will die. Our time will come and for the time being we trust in God.”

The HALO Trust is responding to the threat posed by this high-priority minefield at Qorilugud. Teams are at work to clear the full area around the town’s perimeter where mines were laid by the Somali National Army during the 1980s (to protect their southern logistics base, located beside the village). HALO’s manual demining teams, supported by funding from the governments of Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United States, are painstakingly clearing each metre of contaminated ground around the town in order to ensure that the depressingly predictable cycle of accidents at Qorilugud finally comes to an end.

HALO has already completed clearance around the wells on the outskirts of Qorilugud which draw nomadic herders in from miles around, as well as on a number of roads leading to the town. In total, HALO has recovered and safely disposed of 106 anti-personnel mines, seven anti-tank mines, 91 items of unexploded ordnance such as grenades and mortar rounds, 213 items of stray ammunition, and 1,997 items of small arms ammunition from in and around Qorilugud.

Work on the extensive, sparsely laid anti-tank minefield around the town has just begun and Nimco is preparing to pack up her traditional Somali house (or bool) and clear the way for the deminers. She’s happy to move, as it means her and her family can return to a future safe from landmines and explosive remnants of war.

anti-tank-mine-accident-somalia-halo-trust
Nimco-somalia-halo-trust.jpg
deminer-qorilugud-somalia-halo-trust
Qorilugud-herders-somalia-halo-trust

Useful Info

  • Policies and safeguarding
  • FAQs
  • Tenders

Get Involved

  • Donate now
  • Raise money

Get In Touch

  • Contact us
  • Press office
Sitemap | Terms of use | Privacy policy | Cookies Policy
The HALO Trust | Copyright © 2025
Sign up for our newsletter
Visit our HALO USA website

CARRONFOOT, THORNHILL, DUMFRIES, DG3 5BF

The HALO Trust is a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England No. 2228587. Registered Charity No. 1001813 and (in Scotland) SC037870. Registered Office: One Bartholomew Close, Barts Square, London EC1A 7BL

The HALO Trust (USA), Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization US Federal Tax ID Number 52-2158152
Office: 1730 Rhode Island Ave NW, Suite 206, Washington, DC 20036 

By registering for our updates, or making a donation to us, you expressly agree to your information being used by The HALO Trust and The HALO Trust (USA), Inc. in accordance with our privacy protection policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.

We now have a dedicated website for visitors in the USA and Canada.

Visit dedicated site