(including mines), except for the years 1969–70. 1945 had the deadliest record of 130 people killed. Most mine fields are located in the coastal area, the most populated zone of the country. Libya also has a bad heritage of land mines from the Libyan-Egyptian war in 1977. During the Libyan civil war in 2011, Muammar al Qadafi's regime laid land mines to check the advance of the rebel forces. In the 1990s, about a dozen explosives removal teams worked in the former battle fields in Libya to defuse land mines and duds. Since the European countries were unwilling to assist with the removal of these explosives, the Libyan government was forced to cover the expenses for this dangerous work. Tunisia "On March 17 [1943] General George S. Patton captured Gafsa. On April 8 he joined up with the 8th Army, whilst on his left, the French XIX Corps moved towards the Eastern Dorsale. But neither of them were able to intercept the Italian army as it retreated north towards Enfidaville via Sfax and Sousse. This was because of the vast numbers of land-mines that Italian and German sappers laid, one of which killed Major-General Edouard Welvert, commanding the "Constantine" Motorised Division, as they were entering Kairouan". Today, the Tunisian Army is extracting between 200 and 300 mines every year. Western Sahara Morocco has constructed a 2,700 km (1,700 mi) long berm (sand wall) cutting through the length of Western Sahara. Minefields and watchtowers serve to separate the Moroccan-controlled zone from the sparsely populated Free Zone. Several thousand people have been killed or injured as a result of stepping on land mines, as have numerous Sahrawi livestock (goats and camels). Diplomatic efforts Although these three countries suffer from the same problem, they have never unified their diplomatic engagements with the formerly belligerent countries, Italy, Germany, and Great Britain. This weakened their positions in demanding the extraction of the mines, and compensation for war damages. Libya and Egypt work apart. Tunisia signed the Ottawa Treaty in December 1997, calling for banning the use of mines in warfare. Notes References Basil Henry Liddell-Hart (ed.)," The Rommel Papers", translated to Arabic by Fathi Abdullah An Nimr, Maktabat al Anglo-Misriya, Cairo. Ahmed Ibrahim Mahmud, " Mushkilat al Algham fi Misr wa Ab'ad al Mushkila fil Alam: Khususiyat al Hala al Misriya", Markaz Al-Ahram lid Dirasat as Siyasiya wal Stratijiya, Cairo, 2000. Libya, The White Book,