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Mine Action News - July 2015

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Emergency Explosive Ordnance Disposal

On 14 May, the UNMAS sub office in Yei was informed that a mine had been located in Kajo Keji (Central Equatoria) on a main road and the main route local children use to get to school (as seen in photo above). UNMAS deployed to the site immediately on an emergency tasking to clear it.

The mine was only 30 metres away from the house of Francis Nyara - a local who was the one who found it and reported it.  He said he was curious at first when he saw something on the ground in the middle of the busy road. When he got closer to investigate, he recognized it as a landmine and alerted the authorities. Thanks to Mine Risk Education sessions he attended, Francis knew how to proceed and even marked the area himself so that no one would use it, while waiting for UNMAS.

Upon arrival, UNMAS began a full manual clearance of the immediate area around the mine. “It’s excellent that this area can be cleared once and for all.” said Francis Nyara;  “We know that once the team is finished work, we can use the land without fear.”

Rehabilitating the Juba Port

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) started a project in April to improve the Nile River Juba port, an important port for river traffic. Through this project, JICA will construct a 200-meter pier and install the equipment necessary to enhance the port’s functions.

As a first step, the Japanese Engineering Contingent (JEC) in the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) had to put a fence around the project site. UNMAS was requested by the JEC to support the project with clearance operations.

UNMAS teams first conducted a visual search of the area but were unable to complete a full search of the perimeter due to the fact that several houses had been built on the proposed area and were still in place when the search was conducted. After the houses were demolished, during the first two weeks in May, whilst constructing the perimeter fence along the area of demolished houses, the JEC uncovered two items of unexploded ordnance. UNMAS quickly carried out an inspection of both items and removed them from the area for later disposal so the JEC could continue their work.

The fence was then rapidly completed and on 21 May, UNMAS participated in a ceremony to mark the completion of the fence building project, hosted by the JEC. The ceremony was held with the participation of the Minister of Transportation, Roads and Bridges, the Japanese Ambassador, the Chief Representative of JICA and the JEC Commander. The Japanese Ambassador and the JEC Commander mentioned UNMAS in their speeches and appreciated UNMAS support to the development of the JICA project.

Clearance in Eastern Equatoria - Ngangala Village

Ngangala village in Eastern Equatoria was used as a military base for the Sudanese Armed Forces until 2005 resulting in heavy fighting in the area and consequently numerous landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW) are still seen when walking through the village today.

The clearance of this village and its surrounding area is particularly important as the main economic activities of the people of Ngangala village are agriculture, charcoal burning and hunting. For this they need land they can use safely. UNMAS clearance was thus welcomed. According to the village chief, Mr Edward “…we are benefitting a lot from the cleared areas ... and would like to place families in the cleared area to begin farming the land."

The Community Liaison Teams have been active alongside the clearance teams gathering information and educating the community of the dangers of ERW and landmines. One local man was found using a projectile to tie his goats to as he was unaware of the danger. Once the team gathered this information, the item (in above picture) was removed and destroyed.

When the whole area was cleared, it was handed over to the village chief and other village representatives and they immediately started using the now safe land.

Emergency Airport Clearance in Upper Nile

Bentiu, Unity State, saw its air operations halted and support to tens of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons stalled on 13 June, when an SPLA truck exploded and caught fire at the Rubkona airstrip, which is used to fly in tonnes of food and non-food items to the crisis-affected population.

Sudan People’s Liberation Army soldiers were off-loading a plane of supplies and ammunition when an explosion occurred which resulted in the death of one soldier and serious injuries to three others.

As a result of the incident, flights were immediately suspended and UNMAS was requested to commence emergency clearance. UNMAS was later able to access the airstrip and see unexploded ordnance (UXO), fuses and shrapnel all around the area of the UNMISS Movement Control terminal and petrol facility.

Luckily, there were no further casualties or damage to assets; however there were still many unexploded items in and around the truck. Movement to the airstrip was suspended until UNMAS could clear along all the affected areas.

UNMAS completed the clearance of the access road to Rubkona airstrip on 14 June and conducted a visual search of the apron and airstrip. All emergency clearance procedures were completed by mid-morning, which allowed important air travel to be conducted safely. A commercial cargo aircraft landed on the airstrip shortly after.

Where We Currently Work

The above map, generated from the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database, shows where mine action teams were at the end of July 2015.

Please note UNMAS can supply other maps upon request, including a map of all hazardous areas in our database, maps of accidents and maps of hazards cleared. You can also view them at the following link: http://unmas.org/southsudan/index.php/maps

Contact Us

For further information, please contact Iulia Toma at iulia.toma@unmas.org or iuliat@unops.org.

We would also like to hear any suggestions you may have on our reporting and let us know if there are any issues you would be interested in reading about in these updates.