- By Sean Moorhouse, MAG Rwanda
"He pushed the button and a harsh crack rattled through the sparsely scattered acacia trees…... A couple of cuts of the formidable-looking shears are enough to turn a Kalashnikov into steel scrap. A bewildering array of weapons from all over the world and of all shapes and sizes has been reduced to nothing more than pieces of scrap metal."
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In the lush rolling savannah of eastern Rwanda, Samson Sibomana carefully taped the two detonator wires to the ends of the firing cable. Then, concentrating hard, he very gently slid the aluminium detonator body into the soft explosive charge, all the while ensuring that nothing touched the unexploded hand grenade.
Once he was happy with the explosive charge, and the sandbag positioned opposite to stop any pieces of fragmentation, Samson stood up for a final check.
Seeing nothing untoward, he walked across the rich Rwandan earth to the firing point. Samson got on the radio for the last time and confirmed with the sentries that the area was clear of both people and wildlife.
He pushed the button and a harsh crack rattled through the sparsely scattered acacia trees. The hand-grenade was destroyed efficiently and professionally with no damage caused to anything else.
Samson Sibomana was the very first student on MAG Rwanda’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal course to do a live demolition. The other five students soon followed his example. MAG Rwanda has now trained a complete team in basic Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD level 1).
This training is an important first step in helping the Rwandans to have an internationally recognised EOD capacity and achieve their Government’s goal of reducing the amount of explosive ordnance in this volatile region of the world.
As more advanced EOD levels are reached, the Rwandan Government will have the ability both to destroy its large stockpiles of unwanted munitions and to deploy EOD teams in support of United Nations missions.
In Kigali, another MAG-trained team is hard at work destroying small arms and light weapons. A couple of cuts of the formidable-looking shears are enough to turn a Kalashnikov into steel scrap.
A bewildering array of weapons from all over the world and of all shapes and sizes has been reduced to nothing more than pieces of scrap metal. So far, over 12,000 weapons have been eradicated in this manner.
Back in the rolling hills of the east, Samson Sibomana is looking forward to destroying larger things than hand-grenades. “It’s a job I do to help my country,” he explains as he starts preparations for the next demolition.
31 March 09
The EOD training referred to in this blog was funded by the British Government’s Conflict Prevention Pool
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