Tunis, Tunisia - The United Nations Mine Actions Service (UNMAS) and Arms and Ammunition Advisory Section (AAAS) of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) have launched a four-week training programme for 20 Libyan participants to enhance Libyan capacity in humanitarian mine action and emergency response to the dangers posed by mines and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW).

Launched on 18 May 2015 in Tunis, the training courses cover Operations and Quality Assurance (Ops/QA), Risk Education and Victim Assistance (RE/VA) in the field of Humanitarian Mine Action. Libyan participants were nominated by UNMAS and AAAS national counterpart, the Libyan Mine Action Center (LibMAC).

The training was made possible with the generous contribution from the Government of Japan. A graduation ceremony is scheduled for 11 June 2015.

The programme encompasses a variety of topics such as technical terminology and concepts, accreditation processes, mapping, task prioritization, quality assurance and control of manual and mechanical Mine and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) clearance in accordance with International Mine Action Standards (IMAS), data collection, reporting and management and other related subject matters.

The training courses were designed and implemented to enhance the capacity of Libyans involved in humanitarian mine action and emergency response to the dangers posed by mines and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) as a result of the ongoing armed conflict and in the absence of international experts, due to the prevailing security conditions in the country.