UN demands urgent help to demine Sudan
April 4, 2006 (CAIRO) — The United Nations called Tuesday for urgent action to support demining operations in southern Sudan, warning that the war-ravaged region could not rebuild amid the risk of landmines.
The UN’s mine action office in Sudan, in a statement issued to mark the first International Day for Mine Awareness, stressed that thousands of landmines were obstructing the implementation of Sudan’s peace deal.
“Landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) continue to kill and maim people of Sudan, they also continue to hamper delivery of humanitarian aid, return of refugees and internally displaced people,” it said.
There is no accurate data available on the number of landmine victims in Sudan, but the United Nations reported that some 1,800 people have been killed or injured over the past five years.
It stressed that mine-clearing and public awareness had to be stepped up as “there is a high possibility of an increase in the number of victims caused by the movement of returnees.”
Since the January 2005 north-south peace deal, some of the hundreds of thousands of southerners displaced by the two-decade civil war have started to return to their villages.
But humanitarian agencies operating in Sudan have warned that the journey home could be perilous and that roads and other infrastructure could not be built unless demining efforts were intensified.
“Without demining, reconstruction of roads, schools, hospitals and any other post-war recovery and development project cannot be implemented,” said Manuel Aranda da Silva, the UN’s deputy special representative to Sudan.
“I request donors to renew and even increase their support towards humanitarian mine action in Sudan, and to take into account the humanitarian and developmental impact of landmines and ERW at this crucial moment in Sudan.”
According to UN estimates, between 15,000 and 20,000 people are killed by landmines and unexploded ordnance around the world each year. Some 20 percent of them are children.
(ST/AFP)