Africa-Press – South-Sudan. By Yiep Joseph
National Mine Action Service said it had removed at least 45 explosive war remnants in the Hai referendum residential area. The Mine Action team revealed that it had uncovered unexploded ordinances that had been buried under the ground during the liberation war. The life-saving team worked under close supervision of the United Nations Mine Action Service(UMAS) with support from the Embassy of Japan.
Joseph Deng, National Mine Action Service team leader for VTF(Voluntary Trust Fund), a project funded by the Embassy of Japan with an aim of safeguarding communities from war remnants in Juba revealed that they had uncovered many war remnants in Hai Referendum residential area.
“We will be destroying 182HE mortar that was found during the team’s call out and was not safe to be removed and were to be destroyed in the place, however, we have so far removed over 45 explosive war remnants,” Deng said.
JurkuchBarachJurkuch, Chairperson of South Sudan Mine Action Authority appreciated the people of Japan and the Embassy in particular for their commitment in supporting the team to uncover explosive war remnants.
“This day is a great day for us that we are coming to witnessed unexploded ordinances, the reason we come here is to come and witness or see how we can implement the explosion of unexploded ordinance(182HE)” Jurkuch said.
“Ambassador this work has been going on for quite a long time with support from the Japanese government and the support is making us to save lives of people who are living here” he expressed
“Iam appealing to the people of Japan, the government and the International community to do more so we can continue to do more unexploded ordinances and mine clearance in Juba”
He said that the National team that managed to remove the items was trained by UNMAS. He added that the area of the referendum was a fighting ground during 1980s and 90s citing the need for more clearance.
Speaking during an event organized to the witnessed the detonation of one of the explosive war remnants yesterday, TsutsumiNaohiro Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the Republic of South Sudan said the Embassy of Japan was willing to provide human security to the people of South Sudan.
“One thing I would like to add is why Japan is coming here to help you South Sudanese people because we would like to help the government and South Sudanese p to guarantee human security to all.” Tsutsumi said
He promised that the Embassy of Japan would continue supporting the people. On his part ZehrudinSukanovicChief of Operation UNMASrecognized the support from the people of Japan toward capacity building in the country.
“What we are witnessing today is a success and I appreciate Japan for their support in regards to capacity building of services team” Sukanovic said
He said that the project had enabled the national mine authorityto justify that truly they could implement the kind of taskof discovering war remnants independently.
“This is one of the site that National Mine Action Service team has completed destroying 45 items, providing risks education to 1362 beneficiaries” he added.
“We manage to implement capacity building project supporting national mine authority enabling their operation capacity which has given opportunity to national mine action to prove what they can do by themselves” he said
Jacob Gore Samuel Adivsor on legal Affairs who represented the government appreciated Japan and the team for saving life of the people George Ladu one of the chiefs who attended the occasion appreciated the people of Japan for their support and called for more clearance in the area since it was still insecure. He cautioned that people should be vigilant and report any explosive materials detected around their living or compound.
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