LandMine Kills 1 , in the Spanish Road !!!

[javierCarrion]

hi !!

http://img454.imageshack.us/img454/6...urmine1pn5.png

Apparently 1 week ago , a French Nissan Patrol with 2 people on it , has hit a antitank LandMine in the Spanish Road (10 Km East of the Mauri BorderPost. )

A man was dead , and another very seriously injured.


so It seems that the mines were real .. after all... Scary , as most of us have been driving trhought there quite recklessly .

Javier

[YK 55]

Yes, they are very real. More info here :-

WSO| Landmines

[Ulrich]

Hello,

and here You will find all about Landmines etc. in Africa:

www.desert-info.ch :: Thema anzeigen - Minen/Landmines/Des Mines - alle/all/toutes infos

Koordinates for Google Earth and GPS..... and much more.

See also the other threads in "Minenarchiv" I have prepared.

Best wishes

Ulrich

P.S.: If someone has new data, pleas sent me, I will update all data in our forum.

ulrich.hanel at skydsl.de

[MotoEdde]

Very scary...as I passed through there in December. I remember seeing the burned out cars and realized with a lump in my stomach what that was all about...stick to the tracks in no mans land...

Pic of the road for future reference...

mtb_better_road.jpg

[brend]

hee
maybe it is a stupid question. But what is the Spanish road? ANd that nissan drive on a tank mine on the main road between morrocco and mauritania.? Or did they take a other little piste? there is a map at the link. but it is too little for me.

bye

[brend]

hee
i think i know where it happened approximately if I compare the map on the internet and google earth. google earth: N; 21.20.44.00 and w; 16.56.18.00 that is the end off a little piste from the bedouines tents which lead to nothing.

bye

[moggy 1968]

if he was 10km east of the border post that suggests he was well away from the area known as no mans land where everyone crosses. in other words he was where he shouldn't have been. the risks in this area are well known if you stray off the track but I think if you travel through 'no man's land. from one border to the other there is not a risk.

[armadillo]

I posted this a few weeks a-go:

The mine thing:

I asked my brother in law, who works in MAG, about the mines in RIM - W.S. There are plenty of them

1 all along the border with Western Sahara.
2 many places in western sahara, sometimes just a meter a-way from the road/piste
3 in RIM near the border. sometimes in places where nobody expects them

MAG made a study of it, however, so far, they are not gonna remove the mines since there is little human action in the area and, compared with other conflictive areas, casualties are relatively low, mostly SAHARAHUI civilians.

Just another way of making live even more difficult for the people of Western Sahara.

http://www.icbl.org/lm/2006/western_...html#Heading97

Regards

[Chris Scott]

I think it's worth reassuring people that as Moggy says, for some reason they were way out of the safe area and paid a terrible price. The couple of clicks from the end of the Moroccan tarmac to the start in Mori is entirely straightforward.

Chris S

[ursula]

see also "Is Western Sahara dangerous ?"

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...angerous-25349

Ursula

[TT-Kira]

I do feel bad for these people but then I hear first hand the most stupidest of stories.

One couple in their 4WD had their GPS points of their HOME vibrantly displayed on the front doors of their vehicle. The same couple hit a small mine which did damage to the underside of their vehicle, with the noise & shock, the first thing they did was to jump out of the 4WD - into what could have possibly been a field of landmines!!!

On a more sombre note, there have been sightings of mines on the edge of the NBD - ATAR piste (the one on the right of the railway as you're heading for Atar) so don't 'stray' from the path ... it's just not worth it!

Kira

[tandempics]

Regarding the stories about the French 4x4 blown up by land mines in Mauritania in Feb 2007 - we would like to set the record straight. We were part of a party of 3 vehicles in an overland drive from France to Togo. Our car is a Land Rover Defender, the other 2 being a Land Rover Discovery and a Nissan Patrol. The couple involved in the tragic accident were our travelling companions, Georges & Bernard. They were not driving the Nissan, but were in the Discovery. The Nissan had been sold in Togo, and the crew of that car had returned to France by plane. We left Togo to drive back to France with Georges & Bernard, but after 3 days we split to go our own way because we considered that they were reckless in their route planning, demanding we attempt extreme off-road raids, and proposing that we return to France via Algeria (against all advice because of the high risk of bandits)
We continued alone through Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania & Morocco. At the frontier between Mauritania & Morocco we paid a guide 20 euros to take us across the mine fields (this is absolutely essential). The track there is at best not clear, and with blowing sand, quite often becomes obscured. Georges sadly was not one to take advice or pay for a guide. This was evident on our southbound trip when he refused the offers of a guide and crossed the mine fields unaided. Tragically on his return trip he got lost and drove onto an anti-tank mine. We received news of this by text after we had arrived safely in Western Sahara. Georges suffered burns, and his friend and passenger Bernard died of internal haemorrage all because of the reluctance to pay for a guide. We know know this region reasonably well, and have many contacts with police & customs officers in the countries we passed through. If anyone wants up to date advice please feel free to email us.

[yorks-lad]

How tragic to go over a landmine.

But I thought, its all tarmac between Morrocco & Western Sahara and upto Noudioubou.

[Chris Scott]

It's good to get the full story behind this tragic event - it appears the guys were reckless in the extreme and paid the price.
I've only done it twice (1999 and 2006) but IMO I still feel the record should be set straight for this popular crossing so people are not freaked out. It is much much more staightforward than it was in the old convoy days and, unless we are talking about some other parallel route, the current crossing of the few kms along the stony limestone track of No Mans Land between Maroc to Mori does not require a guide. There were none around last October anyway, only a few chummy Mori money changers halfway along the track in Merc 190s. Perhaps guides/hustlers are more common when going north. I am sure someone here could come up with waypoints for end of tarmac in Mk and the start or tarmac in Mori to set peoples' mind at ease.

Chris S

[ag]

Hi all,

I'm quite astonished to read about this tragedy.
In my mind (I passed there in august '06) it was so simple and easy to pass from Mk to Mori, following the natural route that it seems umbelivable... [but it's true of course :-( ]

When I'm back home, I'll search for last wpt of that leg... (or track file if preferred, if someone tells me how post it to the forum)

Ciao
Ag