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A plane wreck and protecting an endangered species...

...all in a day’s work for MAG’s Emergency Response Team – ERT – in the Democratic Republic of Congo.



The Emergency Response Team clears land in Kimwenza.

This rocket posed a very real danger.

A safe demolition.

Mine Risk Education in Kimwenza.

Locals, including children, are told how to identify dangerous items and avoid injury.

MAG DRC Technical Field Manager Tony Allen makes a new friend: one of the endangered Bonobo apes.

[Photos: Alice Richard / MAG]

In August, MAG DRC’s newly established Congolese ERT travelled to the site of an old plane crash to clear the area, returning acres of fertile farmland to the local people who had for years been at risk from unexploded ordnance.

However, the usual dangers of such an operation were not the only thing the ERT had to contend with. Matthew Willner-Reid, MAG DRC’s Programme Officer tells the story:



In 1999, near the start of the second Congolese civil war, a plane carrying seven soldiers took off from Kinshasa destined for Mbandaka. Transporting fuel to support the war effort, it had been overloaded – by six tonnes – with ammunition, weapons and bombs. Soon after taking off one of the engines failed.

In Kimwenza, just outside Kinshasa, local woman Maman Ellie was working in her field when she saw the struggling plane. “It was flying like a chicken, with bits falling off the end like feathers,” she said.

The desperate soldiers were throwing goods overboard to lighten the load but could not save themselves. The plane crashed, bounced and nosedived into a nearby valley where it exploded, killing all on board and scattering the plane’s deadly cargo over a large area.

Over the next two months resourceful villagers took advantage of the economic opportunity that had literally fallen out of the sky.

With remarkable speed they dismantled, smelted down, and resold almost the entire plane, piece by piece. However, they worked while unaware of the dangerous unexploded ordnance surrounding them.

One day, a rocket found its way into a pile of scrap metal destined for a furnace. It exploded, seriously injuring two men tending the fire. Fear of what other explosives lay in wait for them then set in, and the villagers largely avoided the contaminated area after that, letting rich farming land lie unused.

When MAG asked the authorities for a list of priority areas in urgent need of clearance Kimwenza came near the top. The ERT set to work. Funded by the Dutch Government, it can quickly deploy its resources anywhere in the country.

On 28 August, representatives from the Dutch, UK, Belgian and Japanese governments travelled to Kimwenza to observe the ERT’s operations.

Once on site the Technical Field Manager, Tony Allen, gave a security briefing where it became clear that the risks of clearance work are not limited to working with highly dangerous live explosives.

That morning, Tony said, the team had been threatened by a green mamba snake whose bite is highly poisonous and can be lethal. Some quick thinking meant the team survived the encounter unscathed.

After the briefing, MAG’s Community Liaison team visited Kimwenza village, teaching people how to identify dangerous items and avoid injury, and all about MAG’s work.

The villagers welcomed MAG, pleased that the fertile land would be free to use for farming after the clearance work, due to last two months.

Back at the contaminated site the ERT found three dangerous objects in just a few minutes: a rocket propelled grenade, a spin-stabilised rocket and a point detonating fuse. These were removed for demolition.

The ERT also learnt a large shell had recently become visible during a routine burning of the grass by local farmers.

Miraculously, the bomb didn’t explode during the fire, but it still posed a very real danger. The ERT cleared the surrounding area and began preparing for a controlled explosion.

However, there was another important local population that had to be considered. Just a few kilometers away from the site where the demolition would take place is a Bonobo reserve.

Bonobo apes are humans’ closest living relatives, and are an endangered species. DRC is the only country where they remain in the wild and this reserve is one of the only places in the world where the apes can be bred and re-released.

A Community Liaison team had previously visited the sanctuary to give Mine Risk Education to staff, concerned the plane crash could also have sent dangerous munitions into the reserve.

While there, Tony also spoke to the chief animal psychologist about the affect that an explosion might have on the apes. The psychologist said he would sit with the Bonobos at the time of the detonation, and Tony agreed MAG would keep him closely informed.

As the Dutch official prepared to launch the controlled explosion local radio broadcasts kept surrounding villages informed, and a precise time was agreed with local authorities. Via radio links, the Bonobo reserve was kept up to date with what was happening.

Packed with sandbags in a contained area the rocket was reduced to tiny fragments of molten metal in the explosion.

As for the Bonobos? They didn’t hear a thing.

30 September 09

Stockpile: a film from DRC

Stockpile is a documentary from Spin Film [www.SpinFilm.org] set in the Democratic Republic of Congo, featuring the work of MAG.

Links:



                                                 
                   
           
                                                 



MAG's work in DRC is supported by: Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; DFID (UK Department for International Development); Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; UK Ministry of Defence; UNICEF; Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Department of State; Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency).

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