MAG has formally handed back the final section of the 283,898 square-metred minefield surrounding the town of Kapoeta – the first barrier minefield to be fully cleared in southern Sudan since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
MAG had been working on the minefield since 2005, to reduce the risk posed to the town’s residents by landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), and to free that land for use by the community to assist in its development.
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The final section of the 283,898 square-metred former minefield surrounding Kapoeta is officially handed back to the town's Commissioner, Peter Lokuju, by MAG Sudan staff. |
At a ceremony held at the weekend to celebrate the occasion, the town’s Commissioner Peter Lokuju and Executive Director Hillary Lokudu both thanked MAG for its work.
“The war is over,” said Mr Lokudu, “but we are still at war when there are weapons in the ground.”
The ceremony opened with music and dancing by a Toposa tribe from the area, who sang a song celebrating the clearance of the land.
Also in attendance were other members of the community and representatives of MAG, including the Kapoeta Technical Field Manager Stef Naude, who thanked MAG’s locally-recruited deminers:
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The Chief of the Toposa tribe at the ceremony. |
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The ceremony opened with music and dancing by a Toposa tribe from the area, who sang a song celebrating the clearance of the land. |
“Without their dedicated hard work, hours of working in the hot sun, none of what you see today would have been made possible.”
Kapoeta is one of the main towns in Eastern Equatoria and was a place of strategic importance during the long civil war that raged on and off for nearly 40 of the 50 years before the CPA was signed in January 2005.
As the town was won and lost by the opposing sides, both sides laid the minefield. MAG divided it into five sections, which have gradually been handed back as the work was completed. The first two sections were handed back in 2007 and the last three sections this year.
The land that MAG has handed back has been used for a variety of purposes, including cultivation, schools and recently, the construction of a telephone mast.
Facilitating land use for further development is a key function of MAG’s role as a humanitarian mine action organisation in southern Sudan.
MAG’s work in Eastern Equatoria is not yet complete, with other hazardous areas still very much prevalent throughout the state; but the completion of the Kapoeta barrier minefield closes a chapter for MAG in southern Sudan and opens a new chapter for the community of Kapoeta town as they once again can utilise this land.
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MAG’s work on the barrier minefield in Kapoeta was funded by EuropeAid, ECHO and the Government of the Netherlands.
MAG’s work in Sudan is currently funded by: Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State; DFID (UK Department for International Development); ECHO; EuropeAid; MAG America; Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Royal Government of the Netherlands; UNICEF; United Nations.
16 September 2008
