More efforts, funding urged to help South Sudan meet mine clearance target

Technicians demonstrate the cluster munition surveillance process (UNIMISS)

JUBA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Landmines and unexploded ordinances are still posing a threat to security in South Sudan, and more efforts and funding are needed to help the east African country meet its mine clearance target, local and United Nations officials have said.

Jurkuch Barach Jurkuch, chairperson of South Sudan's National Mine Action Authority, said the country needs an additional five years from now to clear landmines and other unexploded ordinances that have contaminated large tracts of land and are threatening lives.

"We were supposed to declare South Sudan as mine-free in 2021, but the years we spent fighting have made us plant a lot of landmines, and also the international community's contribution of money was not enough to at least finish mine clearance in 10 years' time," Jurkuch told journalists on Tuesday in the South Sudanese capital of Juba to mark the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

Landmine clearance teams have not been able to access many parts of the country, and parts of Western Bhar el Ghazel and Western Equatoria states are still infested with landmines and other unexploded ordinances, he said.

"We asked that we should be given five more years that will end in 2026; it will take us more than the years we have requested," Jurkuch said.

"We started clearing landmines in this country in 1997, but up to now, we are still having the same problems. We must do away with them so that we can be able to utilize the arable land that is not being used by people, and we hope in the near future South Sudan will be declared a mine-free country," he said.

Nicholas Haysom, special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for South Sudan and head of the UN Mission in South Sudan, said: "Landmines and unexploded ordinances continue to be a tangible reminder of the devastating cause of conflict; they pose daily threats to women, children, and men in this young nation, to our peacekeepers, and to our humanitarian workers."

Fran O'Grady, chief of mine action in South Sudan for the UN Mine Action Service, said the issues of accessibility and funding have to be improved if they are to continue making progress in mine clearance.

"There has been a huge amount of success over the last decade, but we still have a long way to go," he said. "Right now, we are down to just fewer than 70 million square meters of land to be cleared, that is not just landmines but other types of explosive hazards." ■