A veteran de-miner who has witnessed some of the worst damage explosives can inflict on civilians, says he has never seen anything like the situation in Mosul, the last stronghold of the extremist group ISIL in Iraq, which was finally liberated just over a year ago.

Paul Heslop of the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said that, although teams have cleared nearly 30,000 grenades, artillery shells, aircraft bombs, and other deadly devices, “we’re just starting to scratch the surface”.

Mr. Heslop has worked in mine clearance for more than two decades and even took the late Princess Diana into Angola’s mine fields, back in 1997.

In this episode of our podcast, The Lid is On, he tells Dianne Penn how removing mines and bombs literally clears the path for peace and development.

Music credit: Judas Goat (Featuring Hicham Enouiti), by Filastine.