Japan has extended more than US$1.34 million (about Rs.400 million) in fresh funding for humanitarian demining in Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern Provinces, reaffirming its long-running support for post-conflict recovery.
Ambassador Akio Isomata signed three grant contracts on May 27 under Japan’s Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) scheme, with implementing partners the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), The HALO Trust, and Delvon Assistance for Social Harmony (DASH). The Japanese embassy said the package totals exactly US$1,343,202. Tokyo has committed roughly US$49 million to demining in Sri Lanka since 2002.
The latest tranche is expected to clear about 400,000 square metres of land, allowing more than 3,100 displaced people to return to their properties. Around 22,000 residents in surrounding areas are set to regain access to land for farming and other economic activity.
A separate grant of US$1.6 million has also been approved through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with a focus on supporting female deminers. Together, the two channels bring Japan’s demining contribution for 2026 to roughly US$3 million.
Landmines laid during the nearly three-decade civil war, which ended in 2009, continue to render swathes of farmland in the former conflict zone unusable. The new funding builds on Japan’s US$2.6 million UNDP grant in April that paired demining with dairy livelihoods and women’s employment. Cleared land has already allowed communities to rebuild — a Jaffna church sealed for decades by mine clearance operations reopened earlier this year as a sign of the programme’s progress.
