The United Nations Mine Action Service
(UNMAS) says it has cleared 25 anti-
personnel mines from Pig County in South
Sudan, making the area safe to inhabit.
Last week, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, the Deputy
Special Representative of the UN
Peacekeeping mission in South Sudan
(UNMISS), visited Canal in Pig County to get a
first-hand account of the people living here.
She said, "We're responsible for about 75
percent of mine action, demining activities in
South Sudan.
This is just one example of it. This community
here only had 1,500 people. Because of the
work we have done in mine action, you now
have over 10,000 people. This is huge."She
added that people are now walking on safe
ground. It wasn't easy for UNMAS to clear the
area, given that the rainy season was merely
weeks away and the only way to reach Canal
with the correct equipment was by boat.
As South Sudan struggles for peace, it's still
cleaning up the deadly threat posed by
thousands of land mines from previous conflict
decades ago. The explosives are a danger to
fragile efforts at rebuilding and development
UNMAS is an integral component of UNMISS,
mandated under Security Council Resolution
2567 (2021). It supports the four core
objectives: protection of civilians, creating the
conditions conducive to the delivery of
humanitarian assistance, supporting the
implementation of the Revitalized Agreement
and the peace process, and monitoring and
investigating human rights.
Fran O'Grady, Chief of Mine Action in South
Sudan, said, "what we've done now is we've
cleared the whole area behind us of anti-
personnel mines. So, it's really heartening to
come back now, speak to some of those
people we spoke to before, find out what
difference it makes to their lives, also to look at
the remaining challenges and advocate for
their needs."
More than 5,000 South Sudanese have been
killed or injured by land mines and unexploded
ordnance since 2004, according to the United
Nations Mine Action Service. More than 1
million explosive items have been found and
destroyed in South Sudan during that time,
UNMAS says.