After decades of conflict in the world’s youngest country, landmines and unexploded bombs still litter vast tracts of South Sudan’s landscape, threatening the lives and livelihoods of its residents. In the village of Gondokoro, just a few kilometres from Juba, staff from the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) are working to remove the deadly detritus of war. According to UNMAS figures as of last year, a total of 1,404 people have been killed by landmines in recent years, including more than 250 children, and 3,730 have been maimed. More than 18 square kilometres still needs to be cleared in South Sudan, UNMAS says on its website, without detailing the potential number of devices. It’s a task it says it hopes can be achieved in five years — depending on safety and funding. Since it began operations in South Sudan in 2004, UNMAS says it has cleared more than 90 sq. kms of minefields and battlefields and checked more than 1,000 sq. kms of suspect areas. It has destroyed 39,920 mines, 76,010 cluster munitions and 972,354 other items of unexploded ordnance, and made safe thousands of schools, water points and health clinics, its website says.
SOURCE: AFRICA NEWS
