£8.1m government funding announced for overseas safety operations

HALO’s 7,000 global staff are reliant on support from the local community Credit: ITV Border

Priti Patel, Secretary of State for International Development, has announced £8.1m funding to help a charity based in the south of Scotland remove landmines from war-torn countries.

Priti Patel, the secretary of state for international development, made the announcement while visiting The Halo Trust, in Thornhill, this afternoon.

David Mundell, Secretary of State for Scotland, joined her to make the announcement at the HALO Trust.

Priti Patel also met with local suppliers and representatives from local firms.

Over the last 10 years, the HALO Trust has purchased nearly £5m on protective equipment from local UK businesses.

It includes specialist armouring equipment for vehicles from Penman’s Engineering; spare parts for Land Rovers from Carlisle-based Lloyds Motors and tyres from Soltyre.

The £8.1m funding will support HALO’s UK-funded operations in Cambodia, Somalia, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and South Sudan until early 2018.

This will help to make 15 million square metres of land safe again and enable 15,000 community visits to educate people on the dangers of living with landmines.

It is hoped to benefit almost 30,000 people whose livelihoods are affected by landmines.

HALO is working with Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) to make a landmine free world in 2025.