As the Democratic Republic of the Congo enters its third decade of armed conflict, a huge number of unexploded land mines and other ordinance remain, constituting a deadly threat to civilians.

That’s according to Jean-Denis Larsen, the chief of the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in the central African nation, who told UN News’s Julia Foxen in an interview at UN Headquarters in New York, that the danger leaves less land available for housing and crucial civilian infrastructure.

The key measure of success, he says, is the agency’s ability to hand back safe environments to communities.