- By Hannah Bryce, Programme Office, MAG Sudan
"After the 20 minutes I wore Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to walk through the minefield, I was told, with authority, that I resembled a tomato. To wear PPE for six hours a day would reduce me to a soggy ratatouille. The respect I have for these guys who do this day in and day out is immense, and it is a credit to their endurance and stamina that they continue week on week, month on month."
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'Madelaine' the dik dik. |
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MAG's camp at Kajo Keji. |
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A MAG deminer carries out painstaking work in full protective equipment in 35-40c heat. |
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Some of the mortars, anti-tank mines and tank shells to be destroyed. |
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"Seeing and feeling the power of a blast like this really makes you
realise the kind of damage landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) can
do. Living amongst such a threat on a daily basis is an exhausting
reality for many thousands of Sudanese, who either stayed during the
war or who are returning to a land littered with this dangerous
legacy. |
Thursday 2 April
Leaving the heat and dust of Juba behind us, Technical Field Manager (TFM) Jakkals Pretorius and I headed off to the depths of the south Sudanese countryside, to where Jakkals keeps his camp approximately 40km from the town of Kajo Keji, close to the Ugandan border.
From Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, the drive takes around eight hours, and so we decide to break in Yei where MAG made its first camp in southern Sudan when it first arrived in 2005. The camp there now houses MAG and national partner Operation Save Innocent Lives (OSIL), and is in the process of upgrading the tents that have been there the past few years into ‘tukuls’, the traditional housing in Sudan.
In addition to housing MAG and OSIL, MAG has recently adopted a new addition, in the form of an abandoned baby dik dik – a small deer (pictured right).
Jakkals and I continue on our journey to the camp near Kajo Keji to arrive late afternoon. The camp is clean, organised and comfortable. A little oasis in otherwise dense bush.
Friday 3 April
After an excellent night’s sleep in the camp, Jakkals and the team awake early and head off to the minefield. I take my time enjoying the unusual peace after the hustle of Juba and acquaint myself further with the camp. Once a team is assigned to an area by the UN Mine Action Office, they must establish their own base on arrival.
Here, there was very little from which to start; nothing in fact but a borehole, an important contribution to any camp. But still the team must find an area to pitch tents, dig latrines, create a cooking and washing area and establish their stores. The Dangerous Area (DA) they are working on currently entails widening a road which up until now has been unused by the public because of the hazard of mines.
Because of this, there are few communities nearby, to help provide basic stores, so everything must be bought and brought back from Kajo Keji. Jakkals however has done a good job with his camp and it makes for a comfortable base for him and his deminers.
After a couple of hours Jakkals returns to camp whilst the team have a mid-morning break. I return with him to visit the DA on which they work. The road which the team is working on leads through eventually to Juba and so would be a major thoroughfare but for the risk of landmines.
As far as the team is aware only one motorcycle has made the journey in the last two years. Otherwise, the road has been left alone. The MAG team is working as part of a UNMAO initiative to widen the road so that constructors can go in and make a proper, graded road. MAG’s role has been to widen the route to the necessary 20 metres to allow the constructors to go through.
The site, however, is an old military camp from war times and the metal contamination is high. In addition to anti-personnel mines and anti-tank mines, there are significant amounts of shrapnel and other scraps of metal, each of which cause the deminers’ detectors to signal, and therefore the deminer to investigate.
This is painstaking work carried out in the heat of a Sudanese dry season (between 35-40c) in full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). After the 20 minutes I wore PPE to walk through the minefield, I was told, with authority, that I resembled a tomato. To wear it for six hours a day would reduce me to a soggy ratatouille, I don’t doubt. The respect I have therefore for these guys who do this day in and day out is immense, and it is a credit to their endurance and stamina that they continue week on week, month on month.
As the metal contamination has been so high, UNMAO have decided to use another demining organisation to introduce Mine Detection Dogs (MDD) to this area, as MAG do not use dogs in Sudan.
MAG therefore is now creating large boxed areas within the DA in which the dogs will be used to sniff for explosive vapour. If the dogs detect vapour they indicate to their handler who removes them from the area and the area is then manually demined. If the dogs do not indicate explosive vapour then the boxed area will be considered a low risk.
This collaboration should result in the clearance process significantly speeding up, as the dogs will be able to pinpoint actual areas of landmine contamination as opposed to all the metal signals generated through the detectors. The dogs are due to start work next week, so MAG is busy ensuring all is ready for when they arrive.
Returning to camp, we treat ourselves to a dinner of rice and beans and an early night ahead of our big bang for Mine Awareness Day tomorrow.
Saturday 4 April – Mine Awareness Day
We leave the camp promptly at 7am to start arrangements for the demolition at the Controlled Demolition Site (CDS). The CDS is situated a couple of kilometres down the road and is far away from any population or infrastructure it could damage. When we arrive at the site Jakkals gives us all an extensive safety brief. In so doing, everyone is aware of the procedures for the day and the roles and responsibilities of each team member.
Jakkals then dispatches the ‘sentries’ to points one kilmometre either side of the CDS. This is to ensure that no members of the public are accidentally too close to the explosion when it occurs. Although there is no population in the vicinity, Jakkals still ensures that this safety measure is respected. The rest of us head off to the CDS with Jakkals where the teams start to dig a hole in which to lay the items which will be detonated.
A number of items are being destroyed today, including mortars, anti-tank mines and tank shells, all of which have been found during the course of the team’s work in this area. Once the ground is prepared and the items are ready to go in, Jakkals makes all staff apart from himself leave the area and return to the firing point – the safe area where the actual detonation will be triggered.
The firing point is 1km from the CDS, to ensure that any flying shrapnel from the blast will not hit any staff member. Jakkals will prepare the explosives alone, minimising the number of people exposed to the potential risk in case of accident. Jakkals, as with all MAG TFMs, has extensive experience of working with explosives and it is these specialised skills that MAG looks for when recruiting technical staff.
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| MAG Technical Field Manager Jakkals Pretorius (front, centre) and his team. |
At the firing point we sit and wait for Jakkals to finish his preparations. Finally, we see him approaching the firing point. At the firing point he does final radio checks with the sentries and the medics, to ensure everything is okay in their locations, and then it is time for the blast.
After a countdown, the detonation button is pressed. There is a slight delay between pressing the button and the blast, and then there is a very large boom!
Seeing and feeling the power of a blast like this really makes you realise the kind of damage landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) can do. Living amongst such a threat on a daily basis is an exhausting reality for many thousands of Sudanese, who either stayed during the war or who are returning to a land littered with this dangerous legacy.
For them everyday is a mine awareness day, as everyday they have to be aware and vigilant of the threat of landmines and UXO.
Visiting the team here at Kajo Keji has reinforced for me the very real and practical importance of the work MAG’s specialised and committed demining teams do in southern Sudan.
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7 April 09
MAG's work in Sudan is supported by: Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State; DFID (UK Department for International Development); ECHO; EuropeAid; Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT); Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, U.S. Department of State; RoyalGovernment of the Netherlands; UNICEF; United Nations.
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