UNMAO's Mark Argent and I at mine removal site outside of Juba near E. Rejaf. Notice the MineWolf in upper left of photo. (March 2009)

[Montréal, Québec, Canada -2°C] In a previous post from Juba, Southern Sudan, I wrote about a UNICEF managed and CIDA-funded Mine Risk Education (MRE) programs. I visited program sites where local NGOs taught children and their elders about landmines that remain hidden near their villages. At the time, there were still more known minefields to clear than there were teams trained to clear them so the clearing process would take time. In the meantime, villagers are taught how to recognize landmines or unexploded ordnances and avoid them to remain safe until the dangers are cleared by the United Nations Mine Action Office (UNMAO).

A few days after an MRE visit, Mark Argent (UNMAO) brought me to a different site outside of Juba in E. Rejaf where landmines were actively being cleared by a team of trained mine-removal personnel and a MineWolf machine that, to me, resembles a snow blower. We drove 100 metres past the minefield to a demarkated area adjacent to where landmines were being cleared. This safe area is outlined by a boundary of white-tipped sticks, within which the mine-removal teams prepare their equipment before entering the minefield, take breaks, debrief and where the UN ambulance vehicle parkes at the ready in case of injury.

MineWolf clearing minefiled near Juba, Southern Sudan. (March 2009)

After my debriefing, I was given protection gear to wear (see above photo) that I put on before heading toward the minefield where a team of de-miners were at work. In the back of the minefield, there was a MineWolf actively pounding at the earth, destroying the landmines hidden below the surface.

With minefields still dotting the landscape, farmers are afraid to cultivate the land. When the MineWolf passes over a minefield, it crushes the mines rendering them obsolete. Rarely do the mines explode during this process and when they do, the machine’s driver is rarely hurt due to its design but the machine gets damaged. Once it has passed over an entire field, the MineWolf is transferred to another minefield. At this point, mine-removal teams begin their meticulous work often accompanied with dogs trained to smell explosives.

Safe area is marked by white-tipped sticks planted in the ground to demarkate the area near Juba. (March 2009)

Safe area is marked by white-tipped sticks planted in the ground to demarkate the area near Juba. (March 2009)

Since 2002/2003, landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) have killed or maimed at least 4,119 people in Southern Sudan. During my visit I saw a map in the UNMAO offices that showed a list of over 100 known sites needing to be cleared of landmines. During the rpevious year’s de-mining season, which takes place during the dry season from October to May/June, UNMAO cleared 79 routes and 59 areas. Detecting mines along a road takes time. The slow arduous process moves forward at a spead of about four kilometres per day with a special vehicle that has a pulling mine detector.

Mine removal team returns to safe area after a day's work near Juba, southern Sudan (March 2009)

The presence of landmines in post-war Southern Sudan continue to have a serious impact on the South’s ability to develop. Landmines cause road closures, obstruct aid delivery, hinders the return of refugees and prevents farmers from cultivating the land.

In a recently published article, Norweigan People’s Aid presents the Mokindi and Kulipapa communities, located south of Juba, Southern Sudan and their return to cultivation after the land around their village was cleared of landmines. A total of 109 anti vehicle mines, 411 anti personnel mines, 418 Unexploded Ordnance and 28 sub munitions were cleared.

During a 7-week visit to Southern Sudan, I interviewed about a dozen Southern Sudanese men and women. Each one offers an intimate view of their lives during the 21-year civil war and since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005. We get a glimpse into their family lives and their hope for a country with an uncertain future.

Interview recorded in Warrap Town, and roving footage from back of motorbike recorded in Wau (March 2009).

Thanks to Martin Peter Siba Mungu for the tour of Wau from the back of his motorcycle.

_____

For other videos from Southern Sudan visit the Video/Audio page.

Road dust in Juba, Southern Sudan, March 2009

Today’s the day everyone has been anticipating. At 16h00 (14h00 in the Hague) the International Criminal Court will announce three judges’ decision regarding the Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s July 14, 2008 request (via submission of documents: ICC-02/05-157 & ICC-02/05-157-AnxA) to issue an arrest warrant for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Interesting articles about the case are here and here.

Since the February 23, 2009 ICC announcement that it would make its decision public, people I’ve met in Southern Sudan have been speculating on the effects the decision will have on their lives and their work. Most of those I’ve spoken to seem to expect a public reaction in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum where there is significant popular support for Al Bashir.

In Juba, reports of US$ currency shortages in some banks may indicate that there is a fear of a decline in the value of the Sudanese Pound as a result of the expected ICC decision to issue an arrest warrant. From last Monday morning to Tuesday evening, the value of the Sudanese Pound on the black market has decrease from 2.3SP/1US$ to 2.6SP/1US$.

On my way to the Juba airport at 8h15 this morning, I notice that there are more soldiers than usual on the streets, and considerably more of them were armed with automatic weapons slung over their right shoulders. I would have initially been in the town of Abyei, in the Transitional Areas along the border between Northern and Southern Sudan, established in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, but because of the anticipated decision, my own schedule was changed. UN agencies in Sudan are on alert and are discouraged to travel beyond 14h00 this afternoon. A curfew is on for tonight. Expats are to stay indoors.

My flight from Nairobi to Juba is in a Canadair (I forget which type) and today’s flight from Juba to Wau is in a Bombardier (I also neglected to note which type), so I feel very much at home as I get around these parts. Although I flew a commercial airline to Juba, today’s flight is with the UN World Food Program’s Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS). They are responsible for getting the humanitarian and development community around the country. The WFP’s transport infrastructure is extensive and, as from what I saw today, well organized. UNICEF registered me on this morning’s flight and provided a letter of introduction stating that I am on official mission with their counterparts (I have a contract to write ‘Stories from the Field’ for the Canadian International Development Agency). UNICEF has been very helpful in providing me with access to parts of the country I may not have otherwise been able to get to.

In Juba, I visited UNICEF’s Mine Risk Education Program, designed to teach mainly youth in communities living near suspected minefields left over from the civil war. More about this in another post.

In Wau, I have no official visits scheduled but will collaborate on stories with Sudan Radio Service’s Wau Producer, Martin  Siba. We are meeting tomorrow for the first time to establish a game plan for the next four days. Martin will travel to the same places as me after Wau, so we will continue our collaborative efforts for a few weeks. I will schedule time each day to meet with him to investigate stories and share interviews and contacts. our reports will air on SRS in Sudan and CKUT in Montréal.

I arrive at Wau airport and wait two hours. At first I’m frustrated by the absent corresponding ride and the wait but then I appreciated the time I had to observe the preparations for the ICC announcement. It was finally annonced, and the Government of Sudan’s reaction to the arrest warrant against its president for crimes against humanity and war crimes (genocide was dropped for lack of evidence), has been to expel several international aid groups. Details can be read here and here.

Derelict aircraft at Wau Airport

As I wait in the shade of the airport’s security building, seven pickup trucks filled with about twenty Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers each drive past toward the unpaved airstrip for manoeuvres and instructions before being assigned to their respective areas of the airport. Each soldier has an automatic weapon slung over his shoulder. On two of the pickup trucks is mounted a serious machine guns. Once a ragtag rebel army during the civil war, the SPLA is being transformed into the official army of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) as the south prepares for the CPA-mandated referendum in 2011, which could deliver the South’s independence from the rest of Sudan. Three derelict aircraft lay by the airstrip as reminders of the 21-year civil war.

Before hitching a ride with a driver from the Red Crescent Society, I buy a bottle of water for the ride to the UNICEF office, where I’m greeted by the Operations Officer with a kind welcome and an appreciated coffee. I’m driven to the UNICEF residential compound, and settle into my room by installing my mosquito netting. Considering it hasn’t rained here in about six months, mosquitoes are not a concern but it’s a prevention routine I will maintain throughout the trip.

We are seven around the table. I’m surrounded by Child Protection Specialists, Mine Risk Educators, Child Protection Officers and Mine Victim Assistant Officers. They all work either for UNICEF or United Nations Mine Action Office (UNMAO). Other organizations collaborate with the

I learn that the reported number of landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties in Southern Sudan is more than 2,642. In the past 3 1/2 years, 3,050 dangerous areas have been identified through a Landmine Impact Survey but only 1,894 of them have so far been cleared. Each year, the Mine Risk Education Program hopes to reach around 250,000 children with 26 groups of local educators in the field. So far a total of 758,365 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and refugees have received Mine Risk Education.

After the briefing, a group of us climb into an UNMAO vehicle and drive to a roundabout near the construction site of the Dr. John Garang monument and museum. The War Child vehicle is waiting for us at the rendez-vous point, so we continue behind their lead. We drive 12 kilometres along a bumpy dirt road toward the village of Kabo.

On the way, we notice heavy plumes of black smoke rising from the horizon. We drive closer and can see the flames in the distance.

We continue onward to where the Kajo Kaji Youth Organization Family Association will provide a mine risk education presentation to the youth of the village. I’m going to observe. On the way, we pass a bush fire that rages across the landscape.

Mine Risk Education in Kabo Village

During the civil war the site of Kabo was a former military base. After the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 between the Government of Sudan in Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), the military camp was abandoned. Refugees and other displaced people from within Sudan return to their southern homeland. Some choose to settle in this village. Many families inhabit the former base area. They build houses, open shops, and settle in to their new lives.

Mine Risk Education in Kabo Village

Unfortunately, there are lingering landmines, planted to protect the former base during the civil war. An invisible fence that maims and kills long after the soldiers have left. Throughout Southern Sudan, the scenario repeats itself: families return to resettle an area and landmines litter the arable land where they plan to cultivate.

The kids are taught how to recognize the markers that identify mine areas, what to do if a suspected landmine is found, and who to tell in the communities to get the site added to the Survey.

The Canadair Regional Jet (!) taxis to a full stop, the doors swing open and passengers mill out onto the tarmac. Two jet-black men beam a smile to Juba then to each other and back again, as though in disbelief of the good fortune that returns them to their homeland after such a long absence. Once on the ground, one man raises his arms to absent cheers and revels in the potential of a new state. He is on top of the world, come back to do his part in rebuilding the Southern Sudan, stating, “It is our time to eat!”

Juba Airport (February 2009)

Juba Airport is unlike any other. It is the international airport for the capital of Southern Sudan, yet the size of the entire building (arrival and departure areas, cafeteria, baggage claim, etc.) is no larger that an average secondary school gymnasium but with lower ceilings. The construction of a larger terminal has started adjacent to this one.

We passengers walk into the terminal to reclaim our bags. Once inside the building, we follow protocol and head toward a small counter where two unsmiling men sit and stamp our passports. We have arrived. Next, we make our way through the crowd of unarmed soldiers, airport officials, passengers and the people who have come to pick us up. We walk no more than five metres to where a handler unloads our luggage from the back of a pickup truck. He passes the baggage through a trap door in the wall to another handler who places them on the dusty floor.

Three metres further along is a long counter where customs officials search baggage before marking their acceptance with a chalk circle. Entrance to the country is granted. The communications officer from UNICEF greats me, is happy I’ve made it. He gives my passport and visa to a UNICEF driver who whisks them away to register my passport with the authorities. I retrieve them days later.

I am driven ‘home’ to the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) residences, where I was generously offered a place to stay in a friend-of-a-friend’s room while she is on leave. I meet the others living in the house who accept me into their fold without hesitation. I install my mosquito net, take a short nap and revel in the fact that I have arrived in Southern Sudan. This is where I want to be. I am here.

On February 16, I catch a KLM flight to Nairobi, Kenya. Fifteen hours of flying with a three-hour stopover in Amsterdam to get a scent of Europe before heading for Sub-Saharan Africa for the first time. Very exciting! Now I have an itinerary to plan out, a budget to establish, a what-to-bring list to determine, people to contact…

This all started with the desire to better understand what happens to a place once 21 years of civil war slips into the past with the signing of a peace agreement. In Sudan that translates with the January 9, 2005 signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the ruling government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M). I introduce this in a previous post.

So from Nairobi Airport, I will take a cab the Miti Mingi bed & breakfast in in the Muthangari neighbourhood of the city. I chose this place because it was referred by a friend of a friend’s friend. And because it is in the same par of town as the Sudan Radio Service (SRS), an “independant media dedicated to peace and development in Sudan” that I will be collaborating with in Nairobi, where it is based, and in Juba where it has journalist correspondents. It is also near the offices of Africa 24 Media, whose directors I will meet with to discuss their work in the African media landscape. As a Africa neophyte, starving for information about the continent mostly abandonned by North American media, A24 covers interesting stories I should have already known about but hadn’t. There may be place for collaboration.

(source: Sud Academy 2008)

While in Nairobi, I will also be visiting Sud Academy, a school established to provide a basic education for the child refugees from Southern Sudan who found themselves in Nairobi after fleeing the civil war. I’ve been in conversation with Jane Roy, who, with her husband—and Canadian Member of Parliament— Glen Pearson, started Canadian Aid for Southern Sudan (CASS).  I will be interviewing Jane Roy before I leave about CASS’ recent trip to Southern Sudan in January 2009. CASS provides funding to Sud Academy and have recently returned from their anual January visit  there. I will be meeting up with Kellee Jacobs, a CASS volunteer at the school. She is keeping a blog, The World as a Stage, about her experiences there.

After about ten days in Nairobi, I fly to Juba, where the journey continues. While in Southern  Sudan, I will visit and write about several United Nations managed projects in the region. I have a contract with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to write “Stories from the Field” about these projects. In Juba, I expect to visit UNICEF‘s Mine and Unexploded Ordances Risk Education project. I will also meet with SRS journalists, and other media outlets to gain a better understanding in the role the media plays in promoting and maintaining the tenuous peace in Southern Sudan as mandated in the CPA.

I will also be providing radio reports on a weekly basis on CKUT 90.3fm’s weekly Amandla. The pieces may be replayed on the station’s daily Morning After shows (7h00-9h00) and on Vancouver’s Co-op Radio . short video peices will be produced for the National Film Board of Canada’s CitizenShift web portal in the dossier: A Tenuous Peace. I will also write a couple of articles in The Dominion magazine. So stay tuned for lots of mobile journalism in the next three months.

From Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan, I expect to fly north to visit another UNICEF project in Abyei, one of the transitional areas just north the border between Southern Sudan and the rest of the country. The project provides support to basic education in the three transitional areas: Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. Via email, we are establishing the itinerary and schedule to get to these project areas. If all goes well, I expect to then go to Aweil in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, where the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) runs the Basic Infrastructure and Livelihood Support to Highly Impacted Communities of Return in the area. I am also planning on visiting a World Vision Tonj North Emergency Response and Returnee Assistance Project a bit further south in Warrap State.

So much to do. So little time: ten weeks in all. Come along for the ride.