Foreign aid Conference on humanitarian demining in Ukraine in Lausanne

Together with Ukraine, Switzerland is organizing the Ukraine Mine Action Conference (UMAC2024) in Lausanne on 17 and 18 October. The aim of the conference is to highlight the importance of humanitarian demining for social and economic reconstruction.

Humanitarian demining is necessary for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) announced on Monday. The conference will bring together representatives of governments, international organizations, humanitarian demining partners and civil society.

UMAC2024 aims to put the civilian population at the center of the debate, highlight the benefits of partnerships and show how innovations can make mine action more effective and safer, it added. Switzerland will be represented by President Viola Amherd, who will open the conference, and the head of the FDFA, Ignazio Cassis.

According to estimates, a quarter of Ukraine's territory is contaminated by mines and other unexploded ordnance, the Swiss government wrote. In 2023, the Federal Council approved a four-year aid package amounting to CHF 100 million, which is earmarked exclusively for humanitarian demining in Ukraine. Switzerland is also supporting an aid program for mine victims and small farms that are unable to cultivate their fields.

SDA