The Devil’s Garden by Andrew Youngson

The Western Desert is an area rich in natural resources, but while areas allocated for luxury beach resorts and Petroleum Company compounds have been cleared of unexploded ordnance, Bedouin land has not benefited from such programs. It is estimated that approximately 17 million unexploded anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, artillery shells, bombs dropped by aircraft, small arms and mortar rounds remain beneath the sand. Official records of incidents involving UXO have not been kept until recently, but it is believed thousands of Bedouin have been killed or injured since the end of the Second World War. The term “Devil’s Gardens” was first used by the German General Erwin Rommel to describe the box-like areas of minefields and barbed wire installed by Allied and Axis forces during the conflict. According to the International Commission to Ban Landmines’ website de-mining coordination by the Egyptian government has been stalled since 2009 after their first phase was completed. The start of Phase II covering 2011–2015 was supposed to expand mine clearance operations, facilitate development in the region, strengthen the Executive Secretariat, and mobilize more resources, but was again delayed in 2011 due to lack of funding and political events in Egypt. In February 2012, a UNDP consultant redrafted the Phase II project document, but according to the Director of the Executive Secretariat, the draft “is not close to being finalized and requires discussion between UNDP and the Egyptian Government.”