Southern Sudan to use trained rats to hunt for landmines

News Article by Bloomberg posted on May 13, 2008 at 10:20:42: EST (-5 GMT)

Southern Sudan to use trained rats to hunt for landmines African Pouched Rats also have sensitive noses and can be trained like dogs to detect explosive vapours. Juba, May 13, (Bloomberg) - Southern Sudan will use African pouched rats to hunt for landmines planted in the country during its two-decade civil war, the head of the anti-landmine group said. The rats, which are prized for their acute sense of smell, are being trained in Tanzania to search for the weapons, said Sam Apiliga, chairman of the Southern Sudan Anti-Landmine Organization. "A rat can de-mine 100 square meters in 20 minutes," Apiliga said. "A landmine expert can do the same work in two days." Southern Sudan was recognized as a semiautonomous state in 2005 following a peace agreement that ended 20 years of civil war in which at least 2 million people died. The system of using rats to search for landmines was developed by Apopo, an Antwerp, Belgium-based organization. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We train the rats to detect landmines," Anne Geni, an official from Apopo, said in an interview today. "They are not used to detonate the devices." The technique has been used successfully in Mozambique, where mines were laid during that nation's 1975 to 1992 civil war. African pouched rats, so called because of their cheek pouches used to carry food, can grow up to 1 metre in length.