SOUTH SUDAN / MINES PRESSER

The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said the current crisis in South Sudan has exacerbated the situation of unexploded ordinance (UXO) resulting in 18 deaths and 57 wounded within past year. UNMISS

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:25
• Production Date: 6 April 2016
• Asset Language: English
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS MINE ACTION SERVICE - UNMAS; UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN SOUTH SUDAN – UNMISS
• Subject Topical: MINE CLEARANCE
• Geographic Subject: SOUTH SUDAN
• MAMS Id: 1597384
• Parent Id: 1597384
• Alternate Title: unifeed160406a

Description

STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / MINES PRESSER
TRT: 01:26
SOURCE: UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS

DATELINE: 6 APRIL 2016, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, press briefing room
2. Med shot, UNMISS spokesperson and UNMAS chief of operations seated
3. Close up, UNMISS Spokesperson
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Thompson, Chief of Operations in South Sudan, United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS):
“We’re relying on the local people to give us information. So every time we show up to clear one area we usually end up clearing five or six, nine or ten. That’s why it’s taking so long. We do not know the contamination that is there.”
5. Wide shot, press seated at table
6. Med shot, journalist taking picture
7. Med shot, UNMAS chief
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Thompson, Chief of Operations in South Sudan, United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS):
“What we have to carry out first is a full survey of the country which could take up to three or four years to do and on the result of that survey we could give you a realistic date where we can be looking at a mine free South Sudan.”
9. Med shot, journalist writing
10. Wide shot, journalist seated
11. Wide shot, press room

Storyline

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said the current crisis in South Sudan has exacerbated the situation of unexploded ordinance (UXO) resulting in 18 deaths and 57 wounded within the year.

Speaking today (6 Apr) at a press conference in Juba, UNMAS chief of operations for South Sudan Robert Thompson said the country was heavily contaminated with mines and unexploded ordinance (UXO). With South Sudan being embroiled in one of the longest running civil wars in Africa and the recent crisis of 2013, this has exacerbated the situation of UXO’s harming the population.

According to Thompson, there were no maps or comprehensive records of where mines were placed, leaving all areas where fighting has taken place with suspected contamination. “We’re relying on the local people to give us information" he said, "that’s why it’s taking so long, we do not know the contamination that is there.”

UNMAS has managed to clear 14 million square meters of contaminated land, 3000 kilometers of roads have been made safe and 30,000 mines and explosive remnants of war have been destroyed.