<p>After 30 years, millions of square metres of countryside, and a cost of €1.2 billion, Croatia has done it: every landmine left behind by the 1991–1995 War of Independence has been cleared.</p>
<p>Interior Minister Davor Božinović announced in early 2026 that Croatia had officially fulfilled its obligations under the <strong>Ottawa Convention</strong>, making the country <strong>formally mine-free</strong>. The achievement is one of the most comprehensive post-conflict demining programmes ever completed.</p>
<h2>The Scale of the Task</h2>
<p>When the Homeland War ended in 1995, Croatia was left with a devastating legacy of explosive remnants of war scattered across forests, farmland, and hillsides. The numbers speak to the enormity of the challenge:</p>
<ul> <li>Approximately <strong>107,000 landmines</strong> removed</li> <li>Around <strong>470,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance</strong> cleared</li> <li>Total cost: approximately <strong>€1.2 billion</strong></li> <li>Total programme duration: <strong>more than 30 years</strong></li> </ul>
<p>The work was carried out by the Croatian Mine Action Centre (CROMAC), international demining organisations including the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), and thousands of trained deminers who worked painstaking hours in dangerous conditions.</p>
<h2>The Human Cost</h2>
<p>The demining operation was not without sacrifice. <strong>208 people lost their lives</strong> during the clearance effort, including 41 deminers. Their work — slow, precise, and inherently dangerous — was what made this declaration possible.</p>
<p>MAG, the international humanitarian organisation that has worked in Croatia for decades, welcomed the news, calling it "a powerful reminder of what is possible when there is political will, sustained funding, and commitment to restoring safe land to communities."</p>
<h2>What It Means for Croatia</h2>
<p>Landmines have cast a shadow over parts of Croatia for a generation. Entire areas of countryside were marked with warning signs, fenced off, and inaccessible. Farmers couldn't plant. Families couldn't walk. Tourists couldn't explore.</p>
<p>Mine-free status means those lands are now open. Forests can be managed. Agriculture can expand. Communities in former frontline areas can finally reclaim parts of their landscape that have been off-limits since the 1990s.</p>
<h2>A Model for Others</h2>
<p>Croatia has pledged to continue mine risk education programmes and to share its expertise and lessons learned with other mine-affected countries. The Ottawa Convention — the Mine Ban Treaty — currently has 164 states parties, and Croatia's achievement adds momentum to the global push to rid the world of antipersonnel mines.</p>
<p>"This isn't just Croatia's story," said one demining organisation spokesperson. "It's proof that, given time and commitment, countries can recover from the hidden violence of war."</p>
<p>Dozens of countries still grapple with landmine contamination. Croatia's completion is, for them, both an inspiration and a blueprint.</p>
