60,000 landmines destroyed In Sri Lanka

During the final stages of Sri Lanka’s protracted civil war, Muhamalai made up the Forward Defense Line between the Sri Lankan Army and LTTE forces. Kantha Samey was living in the village of Intherapuram with her eight children when it was over run by the fighting. Like hundreds of other families across Muhamalai, she was forced to flee her home. Even when the conflict ended in 2009, it was too dangerous to return—tens of thousands of landmines had been laid by both sides, forming a minefield three times the size of New York’s Central Park.

In 2012, HALO began work to clear the landmines so families could return home. Balamuralee Balasingam is a Task Commander, responsible for HALO Sri Lanka's mechanical clearance teams. He has spent the past four years working on Muhamalai minefield. The scale of the task is unprecedented and earlier this year our teams cleared their 60,000th landmine, which Balamuralee describes as a very proud moment.

Balamuralee Balasingam, Task Commander, HALO Sri Lanka said:

"I feel very proud when we see people who have returned living a happy life in Muhamalai. It was a terribly dangerous area when we started clearance operations and when we see the happy life of the people in there, I think our hard work in Muhamalai is well worth it."

Kantha Samey is one of the people who has been able to return home thanks to the work of Balamuralee and his colleagues. She describes the long difficult years after fleeing her village:

"I was displaced with my eight children to Jaffna. My husband passed away. I had no job so it was hard to survive. We could only rent a house for a short period before having to move again. It was very sad. Without our land, we had no income," she said.

In 2019, Kantha Samey was finally able to return home. Her children are now grown up but they all live close by. She is able to cultivate her land—growing coconut trees and vegetables such as tomato, chilli and peppers. She is hoping for support from the government to fence her fields so she can grow more crops.

"We are very happy to be in our own place. Now we are settled I am feeling good because we can keep chickens and cultivate vegetables," she said.