Mine Action Programmes in Ethiopia and Sudan - Press Conference

Great. And if we could bring up on the screen our other guest, Mohammed Sadiq Rashid from Khartoum. Hopefully you can. Oh, great. I see him.

So great. We are joined by two guests. Sitting to the left of me is Rob Sifret, the chief of the Mine Action Program in Ethiopia. And on the screen you can see, speaking to you from Khartoum, Mohammed Sada Krishida, the chief of the Mine Action Program in Sudan. And they'll talk about the work done in Mine Action in both countries.

We'll start with Mr. Sifrath and then go online to Mr. Rashid, please. The floor is yours. Welcome.

Thank you. Good afternoon.

I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today about humanitarian mine action Ethiopia. I arrived here from Addis Ababa three days ago. The week before that, I was visiting people living with unexploded mortar bombs next to their houses and piles of dangerously degrading artillery shells in unsafe stores in the middle of towns, affecting the safety of houses, schools, markets and playgrounds. There are some phrases that are often used in debates and critiques of the humanitarian and development world. Forgotten conflicts and the Crisis Caravan.

Ethiopia at the moment risks becoming the forgotten post conflict. There are many crises in the world today that are taking up attention and resources. But neglecting countries on the path to peace will result in them sliding back to war. From 2020 to 2022, a civil war was fought across the north of Ethiopia, during which hundreds of thousands of people were killed. The fighting left areas of the country littered with explosive remnants of war that continued to kill and maim civilians.

Four years after the Pretoria agreement ended the conflict, the resources that are required to solve the problem are ebbing away and being directed to more high profile current events as the crisis caravan moves on to follow the headlines.

Ethiopia is the largest country in the Horn of Africa, and if it falls into conflict again, there will be a vast region of instability stretching from the Red Sea to the borders of Egypt, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Kenya. Some resources need to be focused on trying to prevent this. And what better way than by removing and destroying explosive remnants of war so that they cannot be converted into IEDs, so they cannot be repaired and put back into service as weapons of war, so they no longer cause fear in communities, reducing people's stake in a peaceful future so they will not generate hatred and a desire for revenge. When they kill people's husbands, wives, parents and children, one casualty impacts our whole family. Children are the most common victims of explosive remnants of war.

And if they are injured, women, mothers and sisters will be disproportionately impacted providing care, becoming even more tethered to domestic duties than before. Humanitarian Mine action has proved that there is the capability to solve this problem if the funds to employ people to do the work are available in areas contaminated with explosive ordnance, it is foundational to almost every single one of the Sustainable Development Goals to clear it. Yet time and again it becomes the forgotten problem, a specialist issue that is easier to ignore than to understand.

If a family are hungry, giving them food is a direct solution for that day. But if they are hungry because they cannot farm for fear of being blown up, clearing their land will let them feed themselves for years to come. Mine action is only part of a much larger puzzle of health, happiness and human development. But but it is part that interacts fundamentally with all the others. I am hugely grateful to those governments who have supported their sector in Ethiopia so far, including Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Korea and Denmark, for their generosity, commitment and understanding of its importance.

But more needs to be done. My counterparts in the Ethiopian Mine Action Office under Major General Tedese are doing a fine job, but continue to need our support.

Two weeks before Mine Action Day My plea is twofold. That Ethiopia and other post conflict countries are not forgotten, that the Crisis caravan does not move on before the problem is solved, so that we do everything possible to prevent a slide back to war and that Mine Action is properly accounted for in funding and planning of the efforts by all parties concerned with the well being of the people of Ethiopia and peace and stability in Africa.

I will now hand over to my colleague Siddiq Rashid, the chief of Mine Action programs for Sudan, who is joining us from Khartoum.

Thank you very much, Rob, and very good afternoon. I am, as it was mentioned, I'm joining you from Khartoum, the capital and for nearly two years the epicenter of a devastating conflict that began in April 2023.

Like Ethiopia, as highlighted by Rob, Sudan remains a deeply underreported crisis. Despite facing the largest displacement crisis in the world in a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage journalists to come and see the situation firsthand. UNMAS would be ready to facilitate access to affected locations in Mine Action operations. The scale and nature of contamination in Sudan is alarming because this war is fought in the cities. In Khartoum, explosive hazards are widespread, found in homes, on roads, in schools and hospitals, across critical infrastructure, often mixed with rubble. In addition, a landmine threat has emerged with seven minefields identified so far in the city, as families begin to return, they are doing so into a highly dangerous environment, often without awareness of the risks.

In Darfur, the situation remains extremely concerning. Al Fasher has endured sustained shelling for over 500 days, leaving extensive contamination and continued risk to civilians. Across the poor Dufons, including Al Ubait, Delinge and Kadoukli and several other towns, intense fightings has also left a dangerous legacy of explosive hazards. The conflict is ongoing and in many areas intensifying the continued use of heavy weapons, including unmanned aerial systems. This means contamination is increasing day by day.

The contamination we are seeing today brings back memories of my own work as a deminer in Afghanistan in the 90s. But there is a key difference. Much of that contamination was in rural areas. In Sudan, this is unfolding in densely populated urban environments, placing millions of civilians at direct and daily risk. We estimate that around 14 million people are at risk from explosive hazards.

This includes civilians, returnees, civilians, returnees and humanitarian workers. Who is at greatest risk? Sudan's children, who often play with items and they're safe in their community without realizing their risks. Explosive ordinance is also known also now one of the most significant threats to the to safe humanitarian access. It directly affects the ability of aid workers to move to deliver assistance and to operate safely without addressing explosive hazards.

People cannot safely return, services cannot be restored and reconstruction cannot begin. Sudan was already dealing with legacy contamination from decades of conflict. The current war is adding a new and complex layer of contamination across densely populated areas on our response. The Malaction program has been severely impacted by the conflict, including the loss of critical equipment. It.

At one stage last year, the program faced the risk of shutting down due to funding constraints. While the response is now gradually regaining momentum, it remains far below what is required. We are delivering risk education to communities and to humanitarian personnel, conducting surveys and clearance operations and supporting victim assistance through referral pathways. Current efforts are focused on Khartoum due to high levels of return. But many affected areas, particularly in Darfur and the Cordo farms, remain without sufficient coverage.

National staff and local organizations are at the forefront of this response, reflecting important progress in localization. However, they require sustained support, capacity strengthening and resources to operate safely and effectively. In conclusion, the scale of contamination is growing while the response remains limited. My action is a prerequisite for safe humanitarian access today and for recovery and reconstruction tomorrow. Without it progress and safe returns, stabilization and rebuilding will not be possible.

I call on the international community to urgently scale up support through flexible funding, additional operational capacity and technical expertise. At the same Time. It is essential that national authorities facilitate timely and unhindered implementation of Man Action activities. Only through a scaled integrated Man Action response, we can reduce risks, protect civilians and aid workers, enable safe returns and lay the foundations for recovery. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And I'll now turn over the floor for questions. Yes, Edie.

Thank you both very much on behalf of the United Nations Correspondence association for doing this briefing. My name is Edith Lederer from the Associated Press.

I have questions for you both. Can you both give us the appeals that you have for this year and what funding you've received so far? And on Ethiopia, there have been reports of renewed conflict between the Ethiopian government and Tigray. How serious is that to your operations? And are you able to still operate throughout the country and in Sudan?

You said that the focus of mine clearance is currently in Khartoum, not in Darfur and the Kordofans where there still is heavy fighting.

Can you tell us.

How dangerous it really is for people to return and walk around and live in the capitol and.

How many people have been killed and injured by mines and unexploded ordinance? And that could go for Ethiopia as well. Thank you.

Thank you very much for the question. Edith Siddiq, if you're okay, I'll go first regarding the funding questions. Then if you could get in touch with Lee, our communications manager. I don't have the numbers immediately to hand, so I will cover three points then the number of casualties, the recent ish conflict events in Tigray and the country wide access situation in terms of casualties numbers are never perfect and the only thing that is certain about them is that they are under reported. Over the last five years there have been at least 1,500 victims of explosive ordnance accidents of various sorts.

Of these, well over 50% have been children. Siddiq referenced the natural curiosity that children have and this frequently leads in all countries with explosive ordnance contamination to the most tragic accidents with children innocently playing with something that they don't understand, ending up killing and maiming themselves and their friends.

Regards reports of renewed conflict in Tigray. In late January there was a small scale skirmish on the border of Tigray and Amhara. I don't have the exact location. It did not lead to anything larger. And from my time there two weeks ago, in the major towns and some of the villages, the people do not want a return to war.

That is not their desire En masse. You have a situation obviously where you have armed parties occupying military positions and a low level decision or even a negligent discharge can lead to a conflict event. And if they're not cool heads and the desire for peace then that can escalate. However, that did not happen. And every day that we continue since then, you know, now we're sort of over a month and a half on from that.

Every day that passes strengthens the chances of durable peace.

In terms of countrywide access there is still areas of instability and insecurity. But much more importantly there are only about 12 demining teams. Again that's not an exact number but between the agencies who've currently established to deliver demining operations, their scale precludes country wide operations even if access was not a problem.

And Siddiq, do you have any comment on, on the questions?

Yes, briefly. Thank you very much for the questions in relation to the appeal. Yes, we, we the man action needs were are reflected in the humanitarian needs and in plan for, for this year. And to give you accurate access I will refer this to accurate figures Lee will provide you.

But I can tell you that what is needed in what is what funding is provided is there's a big gap in that. So the amount of funding that we are receiving is quite less in the amount of efforts that we need to put in terms of resource mobilization is extensive. So I think that the donor support I would say is, is not very encouraging. And why we are focusing on Khartoum. Khartoum remained the epicenter of the conflict for 23 months of this conflict.

The war was quite serious, you know, so how dangerous it is. I can tell you that so far the teams that we have deployed have only cleared 2% of the Khartoum or contaminated areas.

And the number of explosive hazards these limited teams are found are now more than 50 to 50,000. You know the major we are, you know, we are not counting the smaller small arm ammunition. So it's quite a lot. And also there are minefields in the residential areas in the, in the, so, so it's, it's really, you know, we had to do a lot of marking to make sure a lot of awareness raising activities around that minefield to make sure people are affected. And accidents sadly are happening across Sudan.

In Khartoum we recently we have more than 150 casualties have been reported. Again I could give you the accurate figures from our database but also I would like to mention that the reporting system that we have is not, you know, is not capable of capturing all the accidents but a lot happening. For example, there was one case in Khartoum, a child dropped A UXO from the roof. Among other children, eight were seriously injured by that UXO was exploded. In another case, a child brought a UXO into the home and that, you know, brought about a tragedy that around 13 members of the same family were injured, including the infants and the family was not able to do anything because they were far away from the.

You know, we have the videos. It's horrible. You know these tragedies are happening. There were 10 civilians killed by anti tank mine that was exploded recently in Cordofan. So.

So it's, it's horrible. No, it's moving around. Is we actually every or ngo because people are coming back. They are not going back to their office unless their office is checked. And we provide the awareness raising to all the aid workers before moving.

So. So it's quite serious even you know, when it comes to the contamination in the cities because population within the cities are moving. So even if one corner of the city is safe, people living in that corner are not safe from the UXO and landmines. So yes, I hope I had managed to answer your question. Thank you.

Thanks Pam. Thanks Farhan. Thank you. To both of the briefers, it's Pamela Falk from U.S. news World Report.

Quick follow up and then a bigger picture question.

A follow up on Edie's question. Do I understand both of you correctly that the recent fighting in Tigray and in Darfur has not impeded your work there? And then secondly, this may be unfair so please feel free not to answer it. But you both have so much demining experience. What would it.

And unmasked does do sea mines. What would it take to. To demine the Strait of Hormuz if you can. Thank you.

I have no knowledge or experience of sea mines. In fairness I'd suggest that you contact our colleagues at the International Maritime Organization.

Right. But Almas does do seam on.

Okay. Ethiopia is landlocked.

Sorry, the access, the conflict and access questions. There are certainly border areas and areas near troop positions that you would never send a demining team until you had the agreement of both parties that they were happy for that to happen. So there are some areas that can't be accessed at the moment. There is some instability in parts of the country that is separate to these wider international conflicts. Internal issues that mean it wouldn't necessarily be wise to try and send teams to those places.

However, there is more than enough work for, you know, 10 times the current capacity to get on with in the areas that we can get to. Thank you.

All right. Anything from Siddiq?

Yeah.

Yes. I would like to add from the context of Sudat and the question of the Axis and conflict. Yes, the, the. The areas which, where currently the conflict is going on remain inaccessible for all human. I think pretty much for all humanitarian activities.

So it's, it's very difficult. Darfur, Al Fasher remains inaccessible for, for us. We tried hard. We are still trying, at least in terms of awareness raising. What we do, we are trying to improve the indirect awareness raising sessions, contacting local partners there to at least to pass some basic safety messages.

And there are humanitarian operators operating in that area. That is where we are currently focusing. But as I said that it's. It's deeply concerning the city. There are reports have come that the landmines have been used in the peripheries of the city, inside the cities.

We haven't been able to send technical people to. To confirm that, but unexploded ordinance, that is for sure. It's a fact. When the war happens, it's left behind. Thank you.

Okay, thanks. And I believe we have a question online from Islam Daru.

Islam, are you there?

I think he may have left. Are there any further questions from anyone in the room?

If not, I'd like once more to thank our guests, Rob Sifret, the chief of the Mine Action Program in Ethiopia, and Mohammad Sadiq Khashid, the chief of the Mine Action Program in Sudan. Thanks very much and good luck on your work ahead. Thanks very much. Thanks. I can't shake your hand in person, Siddiq, but if I could, I would.

Thanks. Bye. It's a great pleasure.