In 2025, there have been significant reductions in funding for humanitarian mine action (HMA) globally, with African programmes particularly affected, and future budgets likely to shrink further. This monograph analyses how Africa’s response to landmines and other explosive hazards could be enhanced through practical applications of technology: airborne remote sensing and data processing using deep-learning artificial intelligence models. These tools, especially when deployed for detection activities, have the potential to greatly accelerate land release and improve operational efficiency.

About the authors

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) partners to build knowledge and skills that secure Africa’s future. The ISS is an African non-profit with offices in South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and Senegal. Using its networks and influence, the ISS provides timely and credible policy research, practical training and technical assistance to governments and civil society.

The ICRC is an impartial, neutral and independent organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and other violence and to provide them with assistance. The ICRC also endeavors to prevent suffering by promoting and strengthening international humanitarian law (IHL) and universal humanitarian principles. Through its Delegation to the African Union, it promotes the implementation of IHL across Africa.