IMPACT
One and-a-half years into the conflict, Sudan’s humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate, with over 11 million people displaced – the largest in the world. The extensive use of explosive devices in the conflict is adding new layers of explosive ordnance (EO) contamination to the 34 square kilometers of explosive hazards that existed from previous conflicts. The expanded EO contamination exacerbates the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis by not only killing and maiming civilians but also restricting free movement, safe access to essential services, infrastructure, and livelihood opportunities. Humanitarians are facing the threat of EO in many areas repeatedly subjected to armed conflicts, hindering the safe delivery of aid relief to millions of people in desperate need.
Since the onset of the ongoing crisis, UNMAS has expanded its emergency response to address the increasing needs for mine action support. Since 15 April 2023 until 30 September 2024, UNMAS has reached 139,783 at-risk people (41,030 girls, 37,796 boys, 38,340 women, and 22,617 men) with lifesaving EO Risk Education (EORE) messages designed to instil safe behaviour amongst affected communities, delivered EO awareness briefings to 1,087 (251 women, 836 men) aid workers, and provided technical advice on EO safety in response to 22 requests from various humanitarian actors, enabling and facilitating their humanitarian access while ensuring their safety. Capturing and analysing the conflict data, UNMAS is producing EO contamination maps and recommendations for each state and distributing them on a monthly basis to the aid community to support their response planning. UNMAS began preparing for the resumption of survey and clearance operations soon to be deployed.
UNMAS continues to lead the Mine Action Area of Responsibility together with co-lead, NADA Elazhar. Ten partners, both national and international organizations, come together to strengthen the sector response by scaling up advocacy and coordination efforts.
Since 15 April 2023:
UNMAS Sudan delivered Explosive Ordnance Risk Education to:
139,783 people affected by the fighting and explosive remnants of war
41,030 Girls/ 37,796 Boys/ 38,340 Women/ 22,617 Men
And gave Explosive Ordnance awareness briefings, technical advice, and contamination maps to:
1,087 aid workers
251 Women/ 836 Men
About
UNMAS first engaged in Sudan in 2002 and has since played a pivotal advisory role in building Sudan’s institutional capacity to provide humanitarian mine action support to the people of Sudan and to meet Sudan’s obligation under Article 5 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (‘Ottawa Treaty’). UNMAS Sudan mobilizes funds and supports land release, EORE, victim assistance, and information management in coordination with the National Mine Action Center and ensures mine action activities support humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding needs. Since January, UNMAS has supported the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS). After the drawdown of UNITAMS in February 2024, UNMAS has continued to provide mine action support as requested by the Government of Sudan.
Activities
1. Technical Advisory on Explosive Hazards: The Mine Action Advisory Team (MAAT) is providing analysis and advice on the explosive threats and risk awareness to aid workers and joining humanitarian assessment missions to ensure access and safety of humanitarian operators. MAAT is also working hard to integrate mine action into the wider humanitarian response. During this quarter, MAAT delivered training of trainers in EO awareness raising to a local NGO outside of MA sector and trained call center operators working for the interagency community feedback mechanism in answering calls related to reports of explosive hazards.
2. Explosive Ordnance Risk Education: EORE teaches how to recognize the signs of EO and how to avoid such threats. Six EORE teams, in collaboration with DRC and JASMAR, are delivering gender/age-tailored EORE sessions to at-risk populations in Northern, River Nile, Kassala, Red Sea, and Gedaref states with a focus on the internally displaced. To maximize reach, especially in hard-to-reach or inaccessible areas, indirect risk education is expanded through media such as radio, social media, through integration in other aid distributions and through training of trainers to community leaders and community-based organizations.
3. Coordination: Mine action coordination provides a crucial platform to collect information and requests from partners and supports delivery of a principled, prioritized approach to humanitarian mine action operations. During this quarter, MA partners have put their heads together to refine the prioritization mechanism to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of MA response. Mine action is also being integrated into various other sectors through the cluster system, making sure all aid workers are safe from the threats of EO.
4. Survey and Clearance: As areas affected by conflict become accessible, there is an immediate need for survey and clearance of explosive hazards. This is required to enable safe population movements, safe delivery of humanitarian aid and in support of future recovery efforts. Survey and clearance efforts will prioritise areas of high IDP/returnee movement, roads, humanitarian facilities and other critical infrastructure. While large-scale clearance operations are not feasible at the moment due to security and thus access restrictions, survey and spot task capacities, with a focus on urban clearance, are being prepared for future deployment.
5. Information Management: Key to all of the above activities is the systematic collection and management of relevant data. Mapping of EO hazards not only contribute to ensuring the safety of humanitarian actors but also guide their operations planning and prioritization of all mine action activities. During this quarter, three monthly updated EO contamination maps and trend analysis were published.
FUNDING
UNMAS thanks the following donors for their generous support through the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for assisting Mine Action in Sudan during the year 2024: The United States Agency for International Development, the Bureau of PoliticalMilitary Affairs/Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Government of Japan, and the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office. UNMAS also thanks the UN Trust Fund for Human Security for its contribution to an inter-agency programme in South Kordofan and to the Government of Switzerland for the provision of in-kind personnel. To respond to the increasing mine action needs, the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan shows a funding need for Mine Action of $15.3 million for 2024, of which less than 50% is funded thus far. The 2025 funding requirement is expected to be much higher given the increasing EO contamination and expanded capacity to respond to the need.
Case Study
Tagwa (not her real name), a 35-year-old woman, lived in Khartoum where bombings were common. On July 15, 2023, an explosion occurred near her home, causing widespread panic and destruction. The noise was deafening, leaving many in the community traumatized. The sound of the explosion shocked Tagwa causing her to experience acute distress. She reported feeling paralyzed with fear, unable to comprehend the events unfolding around her. In the days following the explosion, Tagwa exhibited several symptoms of trauma, including increased anxiety, as she became excessively worried about her safety and the safety of her family. Furthermore, she started avoiding social interactions, fearing that another explosion could occur.
“I was living in Khartoum where the war was extreme, destroying everything. One day, an ammunition or EO hit next to my house, causing a strong and huge explosion sound. I had just given birth to my boy, who had twenty something days at that time. I really panicked, and felt like that was the end, that I will be the next and will die soon. The sound was horrible, my house was shaking and cracking, I thought it will collapse on me and my family. My husband started looking for another place to go […]. We moved to the Omdurman-Al Thawura area, but the situation was the same, bombing every day, sound of explosion and shooting. My situation did not improve, I started suffering from uncontrolled fear, tension, anxiety and almost became in a shock when I remembered the sound of the explosion. Then my husband decided to relocate me and my baby to another state where the situation was safe and there was no bombing sound. We decided to move to North Sudan, River Nile State. Then I found myself an IDP in this state.”
The UNMAS EORE Team, operating in River Nile and implemented through DRC and JASMAR, observed that Tagwa was crying during the EORE awareness session in the IDP camp. Through talking to the camp committee, the team learned that she was suffering from mental ill health - she sat alone most of the time, cried for no reason and got nervous quickly. The EORE Team arranged a psychologist visit for Tagwa. The psychologist came to the IDP camp and assessed Tagwa’s situation and, based on the results, provided counselling sessions, helping her to express her fear, anger and all negative feelings she was suffering. As the EORE Team continued to monitor and followed up with Tagwa, significant improvement in Tagwa’s conditions was observed.
Recently, Tagwa was selected by the camp residents to be the focal person for the camp’s gathering site and to be responsible for the coordination with different organizations that provide services and support. Moreover, Tagwa volunteered to receive community-based EORE training by the EORE team to deliver the safety messages to the people in the camp area, and when she eventually return to her home place in Khartoum.
Data as of October 2024