A demining team carefully crosses a field near the town of Gospić in southern Croatia, using metal detectors to find lethal devices left during the war waged there more than three decades ago.
They are part of an operation that is planned to come to an end in less than a year, when the country hopes to declare it is free from landmines.
Millions of such devices were planted in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia during the bloody collapse of the former Yugoslavia and the wars in the region in the 1990s.
Davor Laura, the head of operations at the Croatian Interior Ministry's Mine Action Centre, said so far 1,807 square kilometers (698 square miles) have been cleared and that nearly 300,000 landmines and other explosive devices have been found.
While that is only a fraction of the total area of the country, the mines were mainly laid in narrow strips that saw frontline fighting. At the end of 2024, the remaining area being combed for suspected landmines was around 49 square kilometers.
“At the end of this year, we will complete all operations and on March 1, 2026, (we will) declare Croatia free of mine danger,” Laura said.
Thousands of people from across the region have died from detonations of devices in largely unmapped minefields and from ordnance that still litters some former battlefields.
Since the end of the war in Croatia in 1995, 207 civilians and 40 deminers have died from landmines and other ordnance, Laura said.
In some past operations, Croatian experts have cooperated with their former wartime foe Serbia, often using military minefield maps, where these existed.
Those behind the demining operation in Croatia, which includes former military sappers and others with similar expertise, have sent help to Ukraine to help clear land there after Russia's invasion in 2022.
For people who lived in places that were on the frontlines of the war in Croatia, the country being declared safe from the danger of landmines cannot come soon enough.
Emir Sefic, 40, from the town of Dvor, about 150 km east of the Gospic area, was a child when he survived an explosion from a detonator without suffering harm.
“It was a huge explosion,” he said.
Millions of such devices were planted in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia during the bloody collapse of the former Yugoslavia and the wars in the region in the 1990s.
Davor Laura, the head of operations at the Croatian Interior Ministry's Mine Action Centre, said so far 1,807 square kilometers (698 square miles) have been cleared and that nearly 300,000 landmines and other explosive devices have been found.
While that is only a fraction of the total area of the country, the mines were mainly laid in narrow strips that saw frontline fighting. At the end of 2024, the remaining area being combed for suspected landmines was around 49 square kilometers.
“At the end of this year, we will complete all operations and on March 1, 2026, (we will) declare Croatia free of mine danger,” Laura said.
Thousands of people from across the region have died from detonations of devices in largely unmapped minefields and from ordnance that still litters some former battlefields.
Since the end of the war in Croatia in 1995, 207 civilians and 40 deminers have died from landmines and other ordnance, Laura said.
In some past operations, Croatian experts have cooperated with their former wartime foe Serbia, often using military minefield maps, where these existed.
Those behind the demining operation in Croatia, which includes former military sappers and others with similar expertise, have sent help to Ukraine to help clear land there after Russia's invasion in 2022.
For people who lived in places that were on the frontlines of the war in Croatia, the country being declared safe from the danger of landmines cannot come soon enough.
Emir Sefic, 40, from the town of Dvor, about 150 km east of the Gospic area, was a child when he survived an explosion from a detonator without suffering harm.
“It was a huge explosion,” he said.