The United States Pacific Army’s fourth Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) team concluded its three week training program in Vavuniya today. 
 

The US embassy in Colombo said in a statement that the intensive “train-the-trainers” program ran from January 27 – February 7 at the Boo-Oya army camp, and during this time, the United States Army’s team of medical, veterinarian, and explosive ordnance specialists worked alongside the Sri Lanka Army Humanitarian Demining Unit to train new deminers and re-certify current deminers as part of the Sri Lanka Army Engineers’ curriculum. 

 

From 2003 – 2013, the U.S. government has provided over $35.5 million (4.64Billion SLR) in aid for Sri Lanka’s demining activities.   An additional $2.7 million (353 Million SLR) in equipment and training will be spent on demining efforts this year.