I was born in the refugee camps in 1985. It was good my family were there, of course the weather was harsh. I always wanted to be older, to grow up. I spent four years studying in Algeria. I heard an advertisement on Saharawi National Radio that Landmine Action needed women for demining. After hearing it a lot of times I asked my family could I do it, they said I could. I thought it would be a great way to help my people and to clean the land of all the bombs. I went for the interview and there were a lot of girls. When they told me I had got the job I felt very lucky.

We wear special clothes and use metal detectors. When I find a mine I mark it and then put TNT around it and attached the detonator, then move back 300m with a cable and blow it up. When I hear of people getting killed by mines I feel sick. We are working in Mehaires now in the liberated territory, there is a lot of ordnance here, at the moment we are clearing cluster munitions but there are also grenades, missiles, anti-tank mines and anti-personal mines. It will take two years to clear what we have found but the bedoiun are always telling us about other mines so our work is extended. It will take a very long time to clear all the land, maybe thirty years.

The problem is we cannot work nearer than five kilometres to the wall. There are many mines there and under the ceasefire agreement we cannot go in that area. The Moroccans mined that whole area and they still put mines there today. They are like terrorists, they are killing civilians not soldiers. I hope the whole [peace] process will give a solution to Western Sahara because I would hate for war to start again. After all this waiting the UN must find a solution, I believe it will come soon.