The Free Burma Rangers (FBR), are expanding their lifesaving aid in Burma (also called Myanmar) with a groundbreaking project to clear landmines. In an August interview with MinistryWatch, FBR volunteer and former Navy bomb technician Jonathan Moss recalled his surprise the first time he helped locals clear a minefield: “When we got there, it wasn’t a minefield like I was expecting — it was a church, and there were mines everywhere.”
A landmine victim holds his young son in a village in Karenni State, Burma / Photos courtesy of FBR
Today, Moss is halfway through a 12-month pilot program supporting locals as they rehabilitate their villages and farmland. Landmines injure thousands of people around the globe each year, and for two years running, Burma has recorded the highest casualties of any country. Of 6,279 recorded landmine casualties worldwide in 2024, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 2,029 were in Burma. In 2023, Burma suffered 1,003 of 5,757 documented casualties worldwide.
Why Burma Lacks International Demining Support
Humanitarian landmine removal operations are common in post-conflict areas. Many countries still have significant amounts of unexploded ordnance left over from conflicts dating back to World War II. But strict safety protocols and donor risk aversion currently keep traditional international humanitarian demining operations out of Burma. “Few donors would like to financially support clearance in an area that they cannot be relatively confident will not get remined by another wave of conflict,” Canadian human rights activist Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan told MinistryWatch. “That’s simple economic math — why put your money in there if you can’t be guaranteed that you’re going to have some type of return that’s solid?”
Moser-Puangsuwan works with Mines Action Canada and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and has studied the conflict in Burma for years. He also said that until Burma has an internationally recognized government, there won’t be a clear path for major humanitarian demining groups to enter the country.
Large-scale international demining appears to be in the distant future for Burma. But the Free Burma Rangers see new landmine victims daily — a teenager who lost his left eye and both hands while trying to clear land with his friends, or a mother raising five children alone after her husband was killed when he stepped on a mine buried in their home. Civilians in Burma cannot wait years for a resolution to the conflict and a stable, internationally recognized government.
An estimated 3.6 million people are displaced by conflict and a major March 2025 earthquake, most of them living in IDP (internally displaced person) camps under austere conditions. A 2021 military coup worsened the humanitarian situation in a country that has been roiled by civil war for decades. The United States has historically been the largest supplier of international aid, and the abrupt defunding of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2025 has worsened shortages.
“Food, shelter, tarps, educational supplies, stipends for teachers, water containers, medicine — we have seen all of it, and it was 100% very well used. That is a tremendous loss,” Moss said in a follow-up email. “Without USAID help, many of the IDP camps have had to cut back on educational and humanitarian support, and people are in a much more difficult situation. Period.”
Hunger is driving people out of their temporary shelters and back to their abandoned homes to retrieve stored food and supplies. Farmers need to return to their fields and plant crops. Moss said untrained villagers are working with whatever tools they have available, sometimes just long sticks. “They’re doing it, regardless of whether we help them or not,” Moss said. “We either decide to help them or just sit and wait.”
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Pilot Program Takes Shape in Karenni State
Thanks in large part to a $195,307 grant from Advance Myanmar, FBR has been able to launch a pilot program in a relatively safe village in Karenni State. The interim local government identified the village as one it is confident will not be mined again by the ruling military junta. Moss is using his expertise to help locals develop a Burma Mine Action Standard that accounts for not just the terrain, but also the ongoing conflict and the urgency of the humanitarian disaster.
Many displaced people are severely injured by mines planted in their homes when they attempt to access food stores to feed their starving families
“I’m doing my best in a very complex environment to try and find a middle ground the Jesus way,” Moss said. “You’ve got this really strict international standard, and then you’ve got these poor people who are going to pull the mines out with their hands, without any tools. How can we make it safer but also still clear these villages so people can return?”
In early March 2026, the demining team began by clearing vegetation with controlled burns. Next, they moved to mechanical demining with backhoes, running two backhoes eight hours a day, six days a week. The backhoes can dig up mines in open ground, expose buried mines and break up rubble from destroyed structures. The final phase of the operation — flail and manual removal — is projected to run from June 2026 until January 2027.
In addition to the mine removal itself, the village is also coordinating cooks, health workers and a security team that accompanies the deminers every day. Deminers keep meticulous records to ensure a safe result and to provide proof of concept for future efforts. A map of the village is divided into 100 squares, each marked as assessed, in progress, or complete. Every piece of ordnance found is logged with the date, location, and the name of the deminer who found it.
Mine clearance is costly, with expenses driven largely by the enormous amount of labor required, according to Moser-Puangsuwan. Equipment is also expensive. A commercial demining flail — a large tracked vehicle that can safely detonate mines — typically costs more than $500,000, although Moss’ team was able to improvise a modified machine for under $45,000.
Getting supplies such as protective gear and metal detectors into Burma is also challenging given the turbulent situation in the country, and once the equipment arrives, it often isn’t calibrated for the jungle environment.
Slow Progress, Big Hopes for the Future
Progress is slow but impactful. Nearly 200 people have been able to return to the village. Forty-seven children attend school in the rebuilt church, taught by volunteer teachers and encouraged by parents who, Moss said, believe education is key to a better future for their children. Partway through the pilot program, “we’re seeing fruit already,” Moss said.
Moving forward, FBR plans to add a second village to the pilot program, then make training and support available to as many villages as possible. Hundreds of similar villages in Karenni State — and thousands throughout Burma — await demining. In a July report, Moss described the goal of the program as “local committees, trained by us, removing mines from their own land on their own timeline under their own authority.”
That will be expensive, and Moss is trusting God for the right funding and people to make progress. He hopes to recruit another volunteer with bomb technician experience and hopes donations will be sufficient to purchase more equipment, buy fuel, and provide more protective gear for workers.
While the task is daunting and sometimes frustrating, Moss said the locals he is working with inspire him to push on. “It’s a privilege and an honor for me to be able to go there and be with them, and I’m super encouraged by them throughout this whole process,” Moss said. “They’ve been praying for me and my family, and I pray for them, and we’re clearly going there giving them physical aid but also sharing the gospel.”
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