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My name’s Clare O’Reilly and I’m a Desk Officer at MAG’s HQ in Manchester, and as such act as the main point of coordination between a portfolio of programmes, our HQ and our donors.
I recently took over support for Angola, and the following diary tells you about my first visit there to see MAG’s work in action...
Day one
The first thing that hits you when you arrive in Angola is the heat. It is like an oven door being opened in front of you, but it doesn’t get closed again until the sun goes down. Next is the crazy pace of life, which I love.
I am met by our Luanda Office Manager, Antonio Lemos, who drives me to the MAG house, shows me around the office and leaves me to catch up on some sleep.
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Angola is a great country: vibrant and colourful, a mixture of historical Africa and the legacies of Portuguese rule, and after meeting a member of another Humanitarian Mine Action organisation, Danish Church Aid, who we coordinate with and share our Luanda office with, we proceed to visit the beach and enjoy the sea breeze.
The gulf between rich and poor is all too evident as we drive back through Luanda’s bustling bairros and street markets.
Angola is still recovering from the devastating effects of an armed independence struggle and a brutal 27-year civil war, which continues to impact on the lives and livelihoods of communities countrywide.
The country was heavily landmined during the conflict, and accidents still occur on a regular basis. The majority of these accidents have occurred in Moxico, the most mine-impacted province in Angola and the focus of MAG’s operations.
Day two
After a bouncy internal flight I arrive in Luena and am greeted by Programme Officer Chelsea Moore and then shown around the Luena base.
We have 12 teams operating in Moxico Province and a lot of work goes into keeping things running smoothly. I get an operational briefing from the acting Technical Operations Manager Abel Tesfai on our previous and current work, and the impact MAG is having on improving people’s lives in the province.
The operations briefing room has a display of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), which have been removed from the ground here and made safe. Each one is unique, but each one is devastating.
The Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) has identified that 190,000 people are living in mine-impacted communities in Moxico, and many of its 800,000 population are former Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees who returned to Moxico from other parts of Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo after peace was restored.
The return of these populations has led to the expansion of existing communities, and the discovery of further Suspected Hazardous Areas (SHAs) that were not initially recorded on the LIS carried out between 2004 and 2007.
The total extent of contamination in the province therefore remains unknown. I'm shown statistics and maps that evidence the sheer scale of the work yet to be done. The emphasis, as always with MAG, is also on capacity building of our national staff to ensure that mine action can be sustainable long after MAG someday leaves Angola.
Day three
The next day I start my tour of our operations, first visiting the Hand Held Mine Detection System (HSTAMIDS) team, funded by the United States Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (WRA). The team are working on a minefield in the Alto Campo area just outside Luena town.
The Supervisor of the HSTAMIDS team, Jose Prata (pictured below), starts by explaining the Alto Campo minefield where MAG began its work on 7 March on an area measuring 13,629m2. So far, the teams have located 11 landmines and four items of UXO, while gaining further training in the use of the HSTAMIDS detectors.
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I test out the weight of the detector after having the functions of technology explained to me by HSTAMIDS Technical Field Manager Cliff Allen. I’m impressed that the guys manage to carry these for 40 minutes at a time, in the Angolan heat no less, as they feel incredibly heavy. The deminers laugh at me as my girly arms start shaking after only a few minutes!
Inside the mined area, the work begins to prepare the ground for the detectors, so the team can make the land safe for communities to live and work on, and for Government, UN agencies and other non-governmental organisations to undertake development activities.
The presence of landmines not only represents a threat to safety, but also creates serious barriers to socioeconomic development. Angola is ranked in the low development category according to the United Nations’ Human Development Index, with 54 per cent of the population living below the poverty line.
In Moxico, which relies heavily on agriculture, contamination from landmines and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) continues to prevent farmers from accessing land, which impacts on livelihoods, food security, and rural development.
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We drive back to Luena via 4 de Fevereiro, a minefield now completed thanks to European Commission, WRA and the UK Department for International Development funding, which measured 975,732m2 and clearance of which benefited over 10,000 people.
Abel and Chelsea tell me that in the last two weeks the community has moved the entire market onto the land cleared by MAG.
The demand is always high for cleared land, and the market is massive and a fantastic demonstration of MAG’s impact on the day-to-day lives of people here.
The next stop on our tour of operations is to drive for several hours over rough roads to a MAG sub-base in Lucusse (above), funded by the EC, which I tour before joining one of the nearby Community Liaison teams who are about to start a Mine Risk Education (MRE) session in a local community.
MRE is a vital and life-saving tool to ensure that communities recognise dangerous items and exhibit safe behaviours, reporting any items they locate to MAG for clearance by our technical teams. In the photo above, you can see MAG Community Liaison Officer Alex Capasso showing the population photos of items they may find in their community.
Children are particularly vulnerable to the devastating effects of dangerous items as their curiosity often leads them to touch items they find. The little girl pictured below listened attentively throughout the session and shouted out just what she should do if she found an item.
Day four
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Another early start this morning, with Abel Tesfai and Technical Field Manager Danie Vrey starting with a brief on the Lucusse Muhinhi minefield, to tell me about its size and impact, and to go over safety and security procedures.
They escort me through the minefield to see our national demining staff at work. The mined area is 440,344m2 and so far we have found 26 anti-personnel mines and 10 items of UXO. There is a trench running through this area where we are finding many mines, and the trench itself runs directly through the town of Lucusse.
Here I see the use of some of mechanical assets by the Mechanical Operations Unit, which are used where possible to prepare the ground for manual clearance teams. Once MAG has completed its clearance, over 3,415 people will benefit from increased safety, but this population is increasing. I meet the national deminers (below) and give them a thank you from our HQ for all their incredible work.
Day five
In Luzi, I learn about the techniques used in the laying of landmines in Angola and how anti-tank mines were often booby-trapped with anti-personnel mines to ensure the most devastating impact.
The war is over but unfortunately the impact lives on: pictured below, two children stand in the doorway of their local shop while the border to a minefield can be seen signposted in the background.
Meanwhile, in the same community you can see a young girl walking past three seemingly innocuous sticks – the red stick is the location of an anti-tank mine and the two yellow sticks are the location of anti-personnel mines, all removed by MAG’s deminers. In the background is a vehicle blown apart by a mine, in front of the school where this little girl learns.
A group of little boys and a group of deminers cross paths at the end of a long day. MAG’s CL teams are also funded by Chevron to train teachers in MRE delivery to ensure as many children as possible know how to stay safe.
Day six
To finish up my incredible eye-opening tour of our Angola operations I visit our Road Operations Unit in the municipality of Leua, who are working on extremely tough terrain to clear a route connecting to the community of Liangongo, which will benefit roughly 6,000 people.
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This work is tiring but extremely worthwhile, and will open a route for these people to access vital services such as schools and clinics in Leua and Luena.
There’s time for a photo with the team and Chelsea before we get back on the road and return to Luena base.
Days seven to thirteen
Now I have a much greater understanding of our work in Angola, I want to spend the next week working on funding proposals so I can explain to donors around the world the importance of MAG’s work, and how vulnerable communities are forced to live every day with the risk of injury and death on their doorsteps.
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I set about arranging as many meetings as possible with potential donors and partners and spend time working with the team to develop fundraising strategies.
Angola is a very exciting place to be and all I can see ahead is potential for MAG to do more to help. More than anything I feel a real sense of pride to be able to work alongside such dedicated people, who enable a brighter future and renewed sense of hope for Angolan people right across the country.
Our thanks to the following donors funding MAG’s work in Angola: European Commission; United States Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (WRA); Dutch Government; Chevron; Unicorn Grocery.
7 October 2011
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