Long after the end of a protracted civil war, Mozambique had declared itself free of landmines.
The major accomplishment comes 23 years after the end of war in the former Portuguese territory.
The Halo Trust, a British charity, said it cleared more than 171,000 landmines from 1,100 minefields in the country since 1993. It reported on Thursday that it had finally destroyed the last known mine.
The Halo Trust, started in 1988, has undertaken mine clearance projects in several countries and is currently working in five other African nations.
It shot to greater prominence in 1997 when Diana, Princess of Wales, visited a minefield in another former Portuguese colony, Angola.
Portugal left Mozambique in 1975 shortly after the Carnation Revolution. Mozambique was engaged in a war of independence against colonial rule and it quickly shifted to a civil war after Portugal departed.
Peace came only in 1992, but the landmines buried underground remained. The human toll they exacted is not known, but Human Rights Watch said in 1994 there were some 10,000 to 15,000 victims, many of them becoming amputees.
Developing the country’s infrastructure as well as its agriculture and livestock should be easier now that the mines are finally gone.
The 1999 Ottawa Convention outlaws the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel landmines. Most countries have endorsed it, but the United States, Russia, China and India are among those who have failed to ratify it.
