The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS)
The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) is a component of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS). Mine action was explicitly stipulated in Resolution 2524 as a component to support one of the mission's strategic goals, namely assisting peacebuilding, civilian protection, and rule of law, in particular in Darfur and the Two Areas.
Established in 1997, UNMAS works to eliminate the threats posed by mines, explosive remnants of war, and improvised explosive devices by coordinating United Nations mine action, leading operational responses at the country level, and supporting the development of standards, policies, and norms.
In Sudan, UNMAS supports the National Mine Action Center (NMAC) in building institutional capacity to meet Sudan’s obligation under Article 5 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (‘Ottawa Treaty’), to make its territory mine-free by April 2023, and to provide humanitarian mine action.
On the ground, UNMAS surveys and clears high priority areas contaminated by mines and other explosive remnants of war in Darfur and the Two Areas to enable humanitarian access and works to reduce explosive ordnance risk through raising communities’ awareness on the safe handling of found explosive devices to minimize incidents with civilian casualties. UNMAS further assists victims through advocacy and the establishment of referral pathways to healthcare and psychological services. UNMAS further contributes to risk reduction through community outreach.
Risk reduction education in local communities. Photo by UNMAS
In late 2021, UNMAS contributed to peacebuilding efforts by training 21 combatants of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North (Malik Agar faction) on basic humanitarian demining. Under UNMAS’s leadership, the 21 individuals were integrated into Sudanese NGOs working on demining operations in Ullu, in support of the Juba Peace Agreement. So far, they cleared 27.75 km of road and disposed of 645 items of unexploded ordnance.
Photo by UNMAS
From January until September 2022, UNITAMS’s UNMAS has surveyed and ensured the demining of 769,306 square meters of contaminated land and verified that 64 km of road is mine-free. The areas were then released for use by local communities. In the process, UNMAS destroyed 22,549 items of explosive hazards, including 25 anti-personnel mines, 13 anti-tank mines, 1,711 unexploded ordnance, and 20,800 small-arms ammunition. Through these efforts, UNMAS has provided safe access for the humanitarian community, increased the amount of land available for productive use, and restored the security of individuals and communities, enabling them to access basic services, including healthcare, education, water supply, and markets.
As part of its activities in the Two Areas, between 26 July and 2 August, UNMAS assessed the safety of a road from Kauda to Kadugli in South Kordofan, allowing the World Food Programme to deliver food items to Kauda.
Photo by UNMAS
Also this year, UNMAS’s mine risk education to increase local communities knowledge of how to handle found explosive devices reached 185 thousand men, women and children. These included direct information sessions with local communities and schools as well as media campaigns.