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Mine and UXO Risk Education in Kassala. [Photo: MAG Sudan] |
People in Girgir El Nogta village saw much hardship during the civil war and remained afflicted by the legacy of the conflict during their new-found peaceful era.
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Unexploded ordnance (UXO) litters the landscape in Girgir El Nogta, located to the north of Kassala town in one of the most contaminated areas in the north-eastern state of Kassala.
The community is home to 360 families, all of whom were displaced by the fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces and Sudan People’s Liberation Army from 1995 to 2005. Some fled to the Lagak Mountains on the border between Sudan and Eritrea, returning only after the civil war ended in 2005. However, even in peacetime the legacy of the conflict affects their lives and livelihoods.
“We lost hundreds of camels, goats and sheep to bombardment, and many people died during the fighting,” local resident Juma Musa told a MAG Community Liaison team. “Although we escaped during the war, we came face to face with the bombs when we returned to our village, which made us vulnerable to accidents as if we were still in the war.”
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Since 2006 there have been 10 accidents, six deaths and four injuries, in which the victim was tampering with UXO – hitting, cutting or burning the dangerous item, in an attempt to destroy it, or just unaware of the dangers.
While UXO can cause direct physical harm to the returning population, it also contaminates the land, rendering it unusable for agriculture, grazing animals and means of generating income. The community feared unused land, and so it remained unused.
Reducing the threat of UXO
MAG removed and destroyed more than 40 items of UXO in the areas close to the village in late 2009. At the same time, a Community Liaison team delivered vital Mine Risk Education, ensuring that people were better equipped to keep themselves safe in the event that they came across further UXO.
The local population is now free from the physical and psychological threat posed by this contamination. Previously, the women of the village used to be too frightened to carry out simple household tasks. “We were not able to clear the surroundings of our compound freely that our animals keep littering, as we do today,” Tehcle Isha Mohammed told Community Liaison staff when MAG made a follow-up visit to the village in April 2010.
“Thank God, now we are moving freely in and around our village,” added another resident, Seidna Ohaj. “We do not worry when our children are away from houses and women are collecting firewood anymore. We cultivate, graze animals, cut the wood and make charcoal, freely, to support our families.”
Building futures
The people of Girgir El Nogta now work closely with humanitarian development agencies in an effort to rebuild their lives. Water, sanitation and hygiene projects have flourished following clearance of the land. And the community plans to approach the Government for support in building a school and health centre, neither of which remained standing when families returned after the war.
MAG’s work is not just about removing the remnants of conflict, but about making a significant and positive difference to people’s lives, reducing poverty and contributing to the achievement of long-term development goals.
MAG thanks the following donors to our Sudan operations at the time of publication: Actiefonds Mijnen Ruimen; AECID, Spanish Government; Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, US Department of State; Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Guernsey Overseas Aid Commission (GOAC); Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, US Department of State; UKaid (Department for International Development); UN Mine Action Office.
1 September 2010
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