After attaining independence, the Government was faced with a lot of ‘after war’ challenges, with mines and ERWs being one of them. The first port of call was the Army Engineers. The Engineer Squadrons in various provinces were engaged to open up gaps across minefields for infrastructural development and Border Posts establishment and expansions. Notable examples being the Forbes border Post Sango Border Post, Victoria Falls Town, Mt Selinda Border Post, Nyamapanda Border Post as well as the Mukumbura border Post. This was done using the early detectors as well as the manual prodding methods. In 1998, the National Mine Clearance Unit was formed courtesy of equipping and training by the USA army. This saw the start of full scale mine clearance of the 88 km2 Victoria Falls to Mlibizi Minefield. The clearance was completed in 2005 recovering 26 069 anti-personnel mines and a lot of ERWs.
The Unit’s work in Victoria Falls unlocked swaths of land for tourism development. Notable is the Wild Horizons Game Sanctuary which sits on the former minefield. Residential houses and medium density suburbs have spruced up in the former mined area. On successful completion of this minefield in 2005, the Government continued its commitment to landmine clearance without any international assistance by funding the NMCU to venture on the Sango Border to Crooks Corner Minefields. The NMCU deployed to Crooks Corner in 2006 and started to work on the two stretches towards Mwenezi River. Both stretches reached Mwenezi River in 2013. From 2014 to date the Unit is working on the home side stretch from Mwenezi towards Sango Border Post. The Unit has also detached its troops to attend to other more urgent tasks. Through these detachments minefields like the 1500m2 Kariba Power Station encirclement was cleared in 2013 to facilitate the Kariba South Hydro Power Station expansion project. 218 IEDs were recovered and destroyed. The Unit was also handy when the Mukumbura Township was being threatened by the changing Mukumbura River Course. In order to do any work to stop the erosion towards the township, mines were to be cleared first thus the Unit was called and cleared the encirclement in 2014. In 2013 the Unit benefited from the relationship of the Ministry of Defence and the ICRC where demining equipment, and camping material were supplied. The Unit also received training in various areas to further capacitate it and meet the IMAS standards. As military man, the Unit has strong sense of patriotism and dedication to ensure the memories of the liberation struggle are cleared through landmine removal. The unit boasts of over 150 deminers and 50 support staff.