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MAG deminers in Juba, southern Sudan. [Photo: MAG / JB Russell] |
Vital funding from the UK Government is supporting MAG’s ongoing projects in Sudan, dedicated to saving tens of thousands of lives by clearing landmines and other deadly explosive remnants of war.
Andrew Mitchell MP, the UK’s Secretary of State for International Development, explained how funding from UK Aid, from the Department for International Development (DFID), will allow MAG to deliver lifesaving Mine Risk Education to more than 80,000 people in Sudan and remove and destroy more than 30,000 lethal landmines and other weapons.
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SudanThe largest country in Africa is contaminated with mines and other remnants of conflict as a result of the 21-year civil war between the Government of Sudan and armed groups in the south that ended in 2005. Mines, unexploded ordnance (UXO), and caches of munitions and weapons continue to kill and maim, deny access to land and basic resources, and restrict relief and peace-monitoring efforts. An estimated 4.9 million people1 are internally displaced within the country, having fled their homes as a result of conflict. With relative peace in the majority of the country since 2005, increasing numbers of these people – and the hundreds of thousands of refugees in neighbouring countries – are returning to their ancestral homelands, moving through areas contaminated by remants of conflict as they do so. 1 Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, January 2010 |
Mr Mitchell MP made the funding announcement during the official opening of the UK Government’s new office in Juba, southern Sudan, on Wednesday 10 November.
Funding from DFID has been crucial to MAG’s work all over the world for many years, with more than £18 million being received by MAG in 11 countries since 2002.
For people like Pia, a landmine survivor who worked with MAG as a community volunteer, and the children at the Shekinah Orphanage, MAG's work, supported by the UK government as well as our other donors, is absolutely vital.
Focusing on projects that have the best possible humanitarian impact – such as removing mines that prevent access to vital trade routes, or land that could be used for agriculture or building – has long been a priority for both DFID and MAG.
Working with our partners Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Deming and Danish Demining Group, MAG’s use of a pioneering impact assessment process in Sudan helped best measure where our work helps the most people.
MAG’s Chief Executive Lou McGrath OBE said: “Support from DFID has, for many of our 20 years, been vital to MAG’s work, and we’re really pleased to be able to work with them on building a more prosperous and peaceful future for people in Sudan and many other vulnerable communities worldwide.
“It’s hard to explain just how terrifying it is to live in the shadow of the threat from mines or other weapons. Helping people escape this fear is what we do, and it’s essential if they are ever to truly recover from the horrors of war.”
During the opening in Juba Mr Mitchell MP also paid personal tribute to the humanitarian sacrifice of Stephen ‘Darby’ Allan, one of MAG’s Technical Field Managers who was tragically killed in Sudan last month when a mine he was clearing exploded.
See also:
- Why does MAG work in Sudan?
- Updates on MAG's work in Sudan
- UKaid / DFID (UK Department for International Development) website
10 November 2010
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