Until MAG arrived, Justin Modi feared his land in southern Sudan would never be cleared of mines.
As the MAG Community Liaison team arrives at Peremasuk, in the Central Equatoria state of southern Sudan, local farmer and church leader Justin Modi is digging the land that has been cleared by MAG’s mechanical and manual demining teams.
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Sixty-five year old Justin remembers a different time and life. He recounts how the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army entered Peremasuk in 1988 and how both they and Sudan Armed Forces laid landmines.
Terrified to be caught in middle of the fighting, he left the village, moving to Uganda and then, in 1991, to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Peremasuk |
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Peremasuk is a small community located just five miles from Yei, the second largest town in Central Equatoria state, southern Sudan. The community lies along the road from Yei to Kaya, a border town between Sudan and Uganda. The local population vividly remembers the heavy and protracted fighting that took place in this area between the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) from 1990 to 1997. According to the local chief, the SAF planted landmines here to block the travel routes of cattle traders, who they suspected of supporting the SPLA. These ‘silent soldiers’ have been lying in wait in the fields since, threatening every day the lives and limbs of people returning to the area following the end of the civil war. The communities of Peremasuk reside within the green fertile valleys between the Willingo hill and the Gorja stream. Subsistence farming is the main activity. The community informed MAG that most of their fertile land was located in the minefield, and that this was limiting their ability to farm and make a living. Peremasuk was the first community in Central and Western Equatoria to receive prioritised clearance based on an Impact Assessment tool developed by MAG. This tool assists MAG in identifying the communities which are most vulnerable from minefields, and also assesses the potential socio-economic impact that clearance of these minefields would have. MAG’s work is not just about
removing landmines, weapons and small arms, but about making a
significant and positive
difference to people living with the remnants of conflict. Read more on Development Impact here |
Justin returned to Sudan in 2000 and discovered the legacy of the war he fled 10 years previously, approximately 10 centimetres under the surface of his land.
A neighbour dug up a mine while helping him one day. Having fought as a soldier in his youth, Justin was familiar with the process of laying mines and searched for more: “I found six mines in total in that area; one was an anti-tank mine.”
Frightened, he reported the threat to the village chief and Boma [local administration], and hoped someone would help. But nobody came, and he was forced to continue farming the dangerous land, until in October 2002 his hoe struck a mine. He was lucky, suffering an injury to his foot, but surviving without losing a limb.
Agriculture forms the backbone of this community, so once he recovered, Justin continued as before. As a church leader, fellow parishioners would come and pray for him, advising him to stop farming his land. “I told them I could not,” he says. “This is the only way I can survive. So I kept digging and I kept reporting the problem to the chief and the Boma.”
“In 2006, a white man came and started surveying the area. He told me to stop digging the land. He put up warning signs around the land and told me to tell the children not to enter.” Justin explained to him that while the land was marked he had to travel a long way to find safer areas for digging. Nothing happened.
Throughout 2007 and 2008, there were a number of demining organisations in and out of the area: “They would come, survey and leave; come, survey and leave. I almost lost hope that the land would ever be cleared. I even told the chief that these organisations would keep coming and going and not do anything. So I thought, I’ll put myself in God’s hands. I’ll start digging in the area again.”
MAG visited the community in 2009, initially to confirm the suspected hazardous areas were contaminated. During this first stage, the Community Liaison team conducted Mine Risk Education, along with household surveys and interviews, to gain an understanding of the socio-economic problems caused to the community by the minefield.
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Community Liaison
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Community Liaison teams are the eyes and ears of MAG. Their job is to visit and talk to communities, to find out what and where the problem is. Community Liaison enables MAG to better target its resources to the areas of greatest need. |
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[Photo: MAG Sudan Community Liaison staff speaking with Justin about the changes he has experienced during the six months after his land was cleared.] |
Such information is vital in enabling MAG to prioritise the most vulnerable communities requiring immediate clearance in the Central and Western Equatoria states.
Justin notes that when MAG arrived with their questions he was furious and almost fought them: “I told them, you’re not even doing your job. You just come with questions and questions, write down the answers and don’t do anything. Nothing’s happening.”
Later in 2009, MAG returned and told him the good news he waited nearly five years for – his community would be cleared. “When MAG arrived with the machines, I was so excited. That day I followed the instructions and asked the children to take a different path to school.”
Since then, his experience of working on the land has changed. Before, he was afraid to dig too deeply for fear he would detonate another mine. The effect this had on his family was enormous: “For them, it was a form of psychological torture whenever I went to work. They were always worried something would happen to me. But now they feel relieved, and comfortable when I go to work.”
Justin anticipates good crops from the cleared land from May to July in 2010. Across southern Sudan in 2009, food insecurity ravaged communities due to unpredictable rainy seasons and drought. Lack of fertile land compounded these issues.
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Justin returning from a morning of cultivating his land. Now he is also capable of collecting firewood close to his home. Previously, he and his wife would have to walk further to collect firewood due to the presence of minefields in their area. Top: Justin working on the land that was contaminated with anti-personnel landmines. [Photos: MAG Sudan] |
He explains how much of the ‘safe’ land in his community was of lesser quality to the contaminated land and how he was afraid to dig too deep, for fear of striking a landmine. “I feel comfortable to work there now,” he says, adding that he plans to sell some of the harvest from the cleared land and save the money for seeds and tools.
His wife’s daily life has also changed. When the area was mined he was afraid for her safety in the area and asked her not to collect firewood or water nearby.
Now, the women in this part of the village are able to collect firewood and can take a shortcut through the previously mined field to the nearest clean water source.
Sitting in his compound, Justin Modi expresses gratitude to MAG for clearing the land. “I believe in all of MAG’s work, it will make Sudan safe to live in again.”
Case study by Justina Demetriades, Community Liaison Manager, MAG Sudan.
14 April 2010
MAG would like to thank the following donors to the Sudan programme: Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID); UK Department for International Development (DFID) / UKaid; Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); Canada Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT); Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Guernsey Overseas Aid Commission; Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, US Department of State; Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, US Department of State; United Nations. Click on Tags below for related articles.
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