South Sudan has failed to meet it’s target of ridding itself of landmines and unexploded ordinances by 2021 due to conflict and funding shortage, said experts on Tuesday.
Jurkuch Barach Jurkuch, the Chairperson of the National Mine Action Authority in South Sudan, said that the country needs additional five years from now to clear several landmines and other unexploded ordinances that have contaminated large tracts of land and threatening lives.
“We were supposed to declare South Sudan as mine free since 2021, but the years we spent fighting has made us to plant a lot of landmines, and also the international community contribution of money was not enough to at least finish mine clearance in 10 years’ time,” Jurkuch told journalists in Juba.
Jurkuch was speaking during the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.
He said there are many parts of the country that the land mine clearance teams have not been able to access.
“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.
He revealed that parts of Western Bhar El Ghazel and Western Equatoria states are still infested with land mines and other unexploded ordinances.
“We started clearing landmines in this country since 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, we hope in the near future South Sudan will be declared a mine free country,”Jurkuch said.
Nicholas Haysom, the Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), said the unexploded ordinances pose huge threat to women, children, aid workers and peacekeepers.
“Landmines and unexploded ordinances continue to be a tangible reminder of the devastating cause of conflict, they pose daily threat to women, children and men in this young nation, to our peace keepers and to our humanitarian workers,” Haysom said.
He said effective clearance of unexploded will guarantee safety for children to attend school, and communities to farm their land without fear.
Fran O’ Grady, Chief of Mine Action Programme in United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), said South Sudan said the issues of accessibility and funding have to be improved if they are to continue making progress in mine clearance.
“There have been huge amount of success over the last decade, but we still have a long way to go. 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 type of explosive hazards,” O’Grady said.
