History Made as NGO Clears Landmines from Southern Sudan Region  | Voice of America - English
An international humanitarian organization has completed clearing a deadly minefield in southern Sudan, in the first such operation since a civil war between northern government and southern rebel forces ended in 2005. The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) says the explosives killed and maimed many people and animals over the years at Kapoeta Town in the Eastern Equatoria region. The Sudanese army laid the landmines in the course of its long war against the Sudan People?s Liberation Army (SPLA).
MAG?s manager in southern Sudan, Jamie Franklin, says thelives of thousands of people living at or near Kapoeta town have been?transformed for the good? because of his group?s actions. During the north-south war, the Sudan Armed Forces plantedthe landmines ?virtually all around? the area in South-Eastern Sudan, creatinga ?barrier minefield? to cut the town off from SPLA rebels, Franklin toldVOA. He explains that Kapoeta was of ?great strategicimportance? to both rebels and government troops, because it?s relatively closeto Kenya. ?It?s a strategic location for entry and movement fromKenya into southern Sudan, and offered possible supply routes for theSPLA.? MAG says the Kapoeta minefield covered an area of almost300,000 square meters. It complicated access to smaller villages in thesurrounding area and was a constant hazard for residents, particularly womenand children. The minefield hurt pastoral groups, who were unable to safelygraze their cattle, and denied use of productive land to farmers, who couldn?tplant their crops there. But now, these activities are becoming increasinglyevident at Kapoeta Town, greatly enhancing development in the area. Also,inhabitants who?d been displaced by the war and had been living in refugeecamps elsewhere are now returning to take advantage of the improved securityand access to land. In addition to anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, MAGexperts also cleared land of other explosive remnants of the war, including?rockets, mortars, hand grenades and everything down to small arms andammunition,? says Franklin. He explains that it?s taken MAG almost four years to ridKapoeta of explosives because mine clearance is a ?very specialized and timeconsuming activity. (Mined) land has to be cleared manually, using hand-heldmetal detectors. Before (the experts) can go in and use the metal detectors,the undergrowth has to be removed.? In addition to this, MAG personnel, dressed from head totoe in protective Kevlar suits and helmets, had to investigate ?each and everymetallic reading? their detectors alerted them to and the area then had to beexcavated by hand, in order to establish whether or not the alarm indicated thepresence of explosives. ?If an area had been heavily fought over, which this areawas, you have a lot of metal contamination and fragmentation,? Franklinsays. MAG experts, who are mostly former military officers withextensive experience in landmine clearance, also had to train local Sudanese tolift the explosives. Once landmines are detected, they are either destroyedright there and then, using an explosive charge and detonated from a safedistance by an electrical signal that passes along a cable. On some occasions,an international technical field manager will defuse the mine and safely removeit. Mines collected in this way are then destroyed in bulk at what MAG calls?controlled demolition sites? far from human habitation. Franklin acknowledges that ?there?s still a lot of work todo? with regard to clearing explosives in Sudan. ?There are a lot of suspected hazardous areas that stillremain to be technically surveyed and cleared, as well as some knownminefields. For example, just in central and western Equatoria, there arereportedly 93 mine-affected communities, of which there?ve been 20 victims inthe last two years. It?s estimated there are 1,25 million people living inimpacted communities in just those two areas.? But Franklin says MAG?s hopefulthat it?ll make a ?significant positive impact? on this situation in the comingyears.