The HALO Trust (Hazardous Area Life-support Organization) is a humanitarian non-government organisation which primarily works to clear landmines and other explosive devices left behind by conflicts. With over 10,000 staff worldwide, HALO has operations in 28 countries. Its largest operation is in Afghanistan, where the organization continues to operate under the Taliban regime that took power in August 2021.
HALO's global headquarters are located in Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, United Kingdom. HALO has offices in Salisbury, UK, Washington, D.C., and The Hague, Netherlands.
History
The organisation was founded in 1988 by Guy Willoughby, former junior officer in the Coldstream Guards and Colin Campbell Mitchell, a British member of Parliament, former colonel in the British Army, and his wife Sue Mitchell. Willoughby won the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award in 2009. HALO's first programme began operations in Afghanistan, clearing landmines left by the departing Soviet military. The next major programme to open, in 1991, was in Cambodia. HALO attracted global coverage in January 1997 when Diana Princess of Wales visited a minefield being cleared by HALO employees in Huambo, Angola.
Leadership
In February 2015, James Cowan was appointed HALO's chief executive officer. Cowan was a British Army major-general who commanded the 3rd (United Kingdom) Division during a 33-year army career.
Cowan replaced Guy Willoughby who resigned from his role as chief executive of the trust on 11 August 2014.
Support and financing
HALO's income in 2021-22 was £93.5 million up from £25.63 million in 2015-16. It receives support from the US, UK and other governments around the world including Finland, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland and New Zealand. In April 2017, the UK announced it would provide £100 million in funding for global landmine programmes for the next three years. In 2021 the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced plans to cut funding for landmine clearance from £100 million to £25 million.
Achievements
The HALO Trust has destroyed over 1.5 million landmines, over 11 million pieces of large calibre ordnance and over 200,000 cluster munitions. Around 10,800 minefields have been cleared and have been made safe from landmines, with another made safe from unexploded and abandoned ordnance.
Awards
In 2012, HALO was named the Overall Winner in the Charity Awards by Civil Society Media.
Africa
Angola
For more than 40 years, the population of Angola has been severely impacted by landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW), and is believed to still be one of the most mined countries in the world. Between 1962 and 1972, it is believed that there were a total of 2,571 landmine incidents in Angola. Estimates for the total number of ERW casualties in Angola vary hugely, from 23,000 to 80,000.
HALO has worked in Angola since 1994. Considerable progress is being made; even so, HALO estimates that there is still in the region of 10 years' work to rid Angola of all landmines.
To tackle the threat from anti-tank mines on roads, HALO developed the Road Threat Reduction (RTR) system. RTR is a two part process: first, systematic sweeps are made with a large detector to find metal-cased AT mines; this is followed by heavy detonation trailers designed to detonate any minimum metal mine still capable of operating. HALO also fields Weapons & Ammunition Disposal teams working in support of the Angolan Army, Navy, Air Force and Police to manage the considerable stocks of weapons and ammunition that were amassed during the Angolan Civil War.
By 2015 HALO had cleared more than 780 minefields ( of land) and destroyed more than 90,000 landmines and 160,000 items of unexploded ordnance. The majority of munitions destroyed is made up of aircraft bombs but also includes guided missiles and cluster bomb sub-munitions. More than a decade after the end of the war, accidents continue to occur and communities continue to be impacted by the threat of mines.
Mozambique
The Government of Mozambique announced that the country was free of all known landmines in September 2015.
In September 2015, when Mozambique declared itself free of all known landmines, HALO announced that it had cleared 171,000 of the country's landmines and employed 1,600 Mozambican men and women over the course of twenty-two years.
Somalia
Somaliland is an unrecognised de facto independent state located in northwest Somalia in the Horn of Africa.