Sudan: Southern town celebrates end of demining

KAPOETA, 29 September 2008 (IRIN) - The final raindrops were drying up when the chorus of Toposa dancers and local officials, celebrating at a cleared minefield, filled the air.

"We thank the god of security for giving us back our land," they sang - ankles ringing as they stamped their feet.

In July 2008, Kapoeta became the first town in Southern Sudan where all exit routes were fully cleared of mines. Demining work started in June 2005 and covered 283,000 sqkm.

According to local officials, landmines have continued to hold back Southern Sudan's potential, especially in places like Kapoeta, despite the end of Sudan's 21-year civil war in January 2005.

The mines, they said, have always stood in the way - of gold diggers and in the paths of cattle herders, in the way of schools and hospitals, and obstructed the region's emergence as a major trans-Africa transit route.

"Landmines [will] be a problem for Southern Sudan for many years to come," David Gressly, the regional coordinator for the UN Mission in Sudan, said.

"There is always a residual risk," he added, pointing to mines that blew up a vehicle in Magwi in an area that had already been cleared.

The UN, Gressly said, would resume demining following the rainy season in October after being suspended in June. Residents of Kapoeta, however, will not be waiting for the deminers any more.

"Without extraction of landmines in Kapoeta there would be little the government would do to benefit from the resources here," the commissioner of Kapoeta, Peter Lokuju, said.

Kapoeta conquered

Amid the celebrations, a deminer admired the surroundings of the Kapoeta airstrip.

"That was the border between the Sudan Armed Forces [SAF] and the Sudan People's Liberation Army [SPLA]," said Abraham Ajac, 30, referring to the warring parties in the north-south war.

Ajac saw the war unfold. He was a refugee in Kenya, then became a finance officer with Mines Advisory Group (MAG). As a boy, he took up arms to fight the northern forces.

That war did not just claim more than 2.5 million lives and displace another 4.5 million, it left mines in its wake.

"Of course, we did it," Ajac said of planting mines during his days as a rebel soldier. "We didn't think much about it at the time."

He joined the demining effort in 2004. "It was tough removing mines from here," he told IRIN.

Kapoeta changed hands between the SAF and SPLA several times, according to the commissioner. Each time one of the groups took over, new mines were planted.

"The work of clearing the land was very hard and very slow," said Hannah Bryce, MAG programme manager. "It is good to see the cleared land being used for schools, markets and telephone masts."

Marinyo Lopotia Lomoya, 63, has built a home on a formerly mined area and revels in what the future without landmines promises. He is a member of the Mogos Cooperative Farmers' Society.

"I am just a farmer, a local farmer and it was difficult for us to walk [because of the mines]," Lomoya said. "If you went to tend the cattle, you would only walk along the stream."

Life without mines

Lomoya is not alone. "People are herding goats, because they have finished demining," said Ajac.

It is not just the herders celebrating a life without mines. The Association for Aid and Relief (AAR) of Japan digs boreholes for clean drinking water.

"Without demining, we can't work. First we ensure that demining is complete," Shuichi Ishibashi, AAR's programme coordinator, said. "We work with government and local people to clear the bush; they tell us that this area is safe before we start."

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed the end of demining in the area.

"They are providing water; we the food," Rajendra Gupta, WFP programme officer in Kapoeta, said of AAR. "With or without demining we provide food, but we ensure that where the food is supplied is demined."

The situation has transformed the area. "Now we are looking forward to sending our children to school," Lomoya said. "Now women can go to fetch firewood."

Five hundred metres away from the celebration, at a brick school with 780 pupils, mines are already a distant memory for some, and news to others.

"By the time I came here, I didn't know that any landmines existed on this land," said Diureno Peeto, a Kenyan teacher who came to Kapoeta from Turkana South, Kainur Division, in 2007.

The year that Peeto arrived, Commissioner Lokuju brought 60 Toposa to the school from Nogalaate, Kolkalang. "These things [landmines] affect cattle, people," said Titus Lomunde, a 19-year-old primary six pupil.

A kilometre away from the school is the market and taxi rank, now a bustling hive of activity for a formerly sleepy town.

"It [the minefield] has been in existence for many years," said Stephen Naude, MAG technical field manager. "It prevented the expansion of Kapoeta area."

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