Somalia's interior minister has handed over 3,500 landmines to a charity dedicated to landmine eradication, fulfilling his part of a deal to remove the devices. Hussein Farah Aideed surrendered the stockpile collected and buried around Mogadishu by his father's militia to the Geneva Call, a group based in Switzerland. The group works to sign landmine eradication agreements with rebel movements and other armed groups not covered under a 1997 antipersonnel landmine ban. Ali Nur Sahal, an Aideed aide, told Reuters by phone from Mogadishu that feuding militia had buried the recovered mines in the capital during the 1991 civil war in Somalia. "This is in line with the agreement we signed in Nairobi and because we believe they are a neutral body," Sahal said of the handover. Mohamed Noor received the mines on behalf of Geneva Call and urged other Somali groups, including Somalia's fledgling interim government and a host of warlords, to follow Aideed's lead and meet their obligation under the agreement.
