In order to foster robotics research and its applications in the area of humanitarian demining in the world, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society – Egypt Chapter (Winner of 2012 Chapter of the Year Award in IEEE Region 8) organizes Minesweepers: Towards a Landmine-free World as the first international outdoor robotic competition on humanitarian demining.In this competition, each participating team constructed a teleoperated/autonomous unmanned ground/aerial vehicle that should be able to search for underground anti-personnel mines and aboveground unexploded ordnances. The position and the type of each detected object were visualized and overlaid on the minefield map. The robot had to be able to navigate through rough terrain that mimics a real minefield. This paper describes this competition, discusses the motivation behind it and summarizes the lessons learnt from this initiative.A special version of the competition entitled Junior Minesweepers is dedicated to primary and secondary school students. Minesweepers: Towards a Landmine-free World is sponsored and hosted this year by the German University in Cairo (GUC) from 28-30 september 2013. The competition is supported by Executive Secretariat for the Demining & Development of the North West Coast, Ministry of International Cooperation, Mines Action & Human Rights Foundation and Protection Against Armaments & Consequences and African Robotics Network (AFRON).Registeration due date: 15-4-2013for more information, please visit thie site: http://www.landminefree.org/