COLOMBO, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Two Sri Lankan volunteers attached to a landmine clearing agency were killed in an explosion on a clearing site in the north of the island country late last week, local media reported on Sunday.
One of the victims died on the spot while engaged in clearing landmines near Mankulam, while the other victim succumbed to his injuries two days later in the Vavuniya hospital.
The victims were residents of Vavuniya and Killinochchi, which was at one time the stronghold of the rebels during Sri Lanka's 30-years civil conflict between government troops and the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Since the end of the war in May 2009, 2,064 acres of land in the country, mostly in the north and east, had to be cleared from landmines and explosives which had been buried by the rebels.
The government said last week that over 2,000 acres of land had already been cleared with the help of the Sri Lanka Army and local and international de-mining agencies and the country was on track in achieving its target of being free from landmines by 2020.
Thousands of minority Tamils who had been displaced by the war have already been re-settled back in the cleared areas with the help of de-mining agencies.?
