Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
SOUTH SUDAN / MINE AWARENESS
STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / MINE AWARENESS
TRT: 07:16
SOURCE: UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 26 JANUARY 2022, GONDOKORO, SOUTH SUDAN/28 JANUARY 2022 JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN/ 28 JANUARY JABEL, SOUTH SUDAN/ 01 FEBRUARY 2022 JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
28 JANUARY JABEL, SOUTH SUDAN
1. Wide shot, Simon Tanguni, exterior
2. Medium shot, children playing in compound
3. Medium shot of Simon Tanguni seated
4. Close up, Bandaged hand
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Simon Tanguni, victim of unexploded ordnance:
“When I was cultivating behind a tree, I hit something. Then I hit it again, and I thought it was a stone because there were a lot of stones around the tree. So, I tried to remove the stone with my hand; then, there was an explosion. It hit my hand, and then I fell down. I could not feel my hand anymore. There were people nearby. They heard the sound and saw the dust rising. They ran towards me and found me lying on the ground, with blood dripping from my hand.”
6. Med shot, Simon Tanguni on chair
7. Med shot, women, children
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Simon Tanguni, victim of unexploded ordnance:
“My hand is still damaged. It trembles when I try to hold something. There is also pus that oozes from it. I was supposed to keep seeing a doctor who deals with bones, but they stopped treatment because I had no money. I now use hot water and salt compressions to help my injury.”
9. Various shots, women, children
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Simon Tanguni, victim of unexploded ordnance: “Now I cannot work, and I cannot farm. I cannot hold any digging implements or an axe to cut a tree. I cannot even help myself as a normal person. I have a wife and a child. It is difficult for relatives to look after their own family and mine. The trauma of the explosion and injury is weighing down on me.”
26 JANUARY 2022, GONDOKORO, SOUTH SUDAN
11. Wide shot, land mine
12. Med shot, danger signs
13. Close up, danger sign
14. Med shot, officials visiting the area
15. Various shots, mine risk education classes
16. Various shots, mine experts demonstrating mine detection
01 FEBRUARY 2022, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Sara Beysolow Nyanti, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator and Deputy Representative of the Secretary-General, South Sudan:
“We need for families to return to the areas where they lived prior to the conflict. We need for agriculture to continue in areas where we know that they had the land and for people to be able to produce food to feed themselves and to reduce insecurity. Overall, it is about safety. It is about creating an enabling environment for people to be able to live and to thrive.”
26 JANUARY 2022, GONDOKORO, SOUTH SUDAN
18. Various shots, delegation getting into a mine clearance vehicle
19. Various shots, delegation in the car
20. Med shot, delegation, exterior
21. Wide shot, live mine detonation
01 FEBRUARY 2022 JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Sara Beysolow Nyanti United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator and Deputy Representative of the Secretary-General, South Sudan:
“We need to end the war in every form, and with these under the ground, there is still the possibility that people can be attacked, which means the war is still not over. For me, it is just making sure that every community is clean and that every community is swept and there are no mines in South Sudan so that children can play so that farmers can grow their crops and harvest and so that South Sudan can develop community by community.”
26 JANUARY 2022, GONDOKORO, SOUTH SUDAN
23. Various shots, mine awareness class, peacekeeper in the field
01 FEBRUARY 2022 JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
24. SOUNDBITE (English): Sara Beysolow Nyanti, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator and Deputy Representative of the Secretary-General, South Sudan:
“We need for people to speak up, provide the information, give us the locations, tell us as much as they know and not only those who were fighters before – even those in the communities – share the information you have to enable those who have the resources, the machinery, the equipment to identify and destroy them.”
26 JANUARY 2022, GONDOKORO, SOUTH SUDAN
25. Various shots, delegation
28 JANUARY 2022 JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
29. SOUNDBITE (English) Fran O’Grady, Chief of Mine Action, UNMAS, South Sudan:
“One of the messages we also want to echo on this day and also in all the events and to all the communities across South Sudan is - if you see something, stop, don’t touch, and report it to the national authorities or a community leader in your area who you can get in contact with. And unfortunately, statistically, children represent the highest casualty rates.”
26 JANUARY 2022, GONDOKORO, SOUTH SUDAN
30. Med shot, land mine
“We need to end the war in every form, and with these under the ground, there is still the possibility that people can be attacked, which means the war is still not over” said a UN spokesperson about landmines in South Sudan.
While tilling his piece of land six months ago, Simon Tanguni struck something hard in the ground. It exploded and tore through his right hand.
Simon Tanguni said, “when I was cultivating behind a tree, I hit something. Then I hit it again, and I thought it was a stone because there were a lot of stones around the tree. So, I tried to remove the stone with my hand; then, there was an explosion.”
Tanguni was rushed to a nearby ill-equipped hospital, which did not have enough medicines to ensure he healed fully.
Tanguni commented, “my hand is still damaged. It trembles when I try to hold something. There is also pus that oozes from it. I was supposed to keep seeing a doctor who deals with bones, but they stopped treatment because I had no money. I now use hot water and salt compressions to help my injury.”
Unbeknownst to him, this land contained an unknown explosive device located slightly away from where he lives. Simon is lucky to have escaped with his life. But this man, who eked out a living through manual work, cannot work to support his young family anymore. His relatives have had to step in.
Numerous farmlands across South Sudan, such as Tanguni’s, have previously been battlefields. A lot of them now lie abandoned and uncultivated.
To shine a light on the continuing effects of landmines in South Sudan, officials from United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and Sara Beysolow Nyanti, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, visited Gondokoro, an area in the outskirts of the capital Juba.
Sara Beysolow Nyanti explained, “we need for families to return to the areas where they lived prior to the conflict. We need for agriculture to continue in areas where we know that they had the land and for people to be able to produce food to feed themselves and to reduce insecurity. Overall, it is about safety. It is about creating an enabling environment for people to be able to live and to thrive.”
The visit highlighted what deminers do on the ground in South Sudan. On the day of the visit, mechanical and manual mine clearance teams showed a controlled explosion.
The Humanitarian Coordinator highlighted the need for communities to help identify where mines and unexploded devices were laid during the conflict.
Beysolow Nyanti said, “we need for people to speak up, provide the information, give us the locations, tell us as much as they know, and not only those who were fighters before – even those in the communities – share the information you have to enable those who have the resources, the machinery, the equipment to identify and destroy them.”
UNMAS and the National Mine Action Authority work every day to clear ensure unexploded devices and mines. The risks that come with every rainy season, where floodwaters transport unexploded devices, are evident.
Fran O’Grady, UNMAS Chief of Mine Action said, “one of the key messages we also want to echo on this day and also in all the events and all the communities across South Sudan is - if you see something, stop, don’t touch, and report it to the national authorities or a community leader in your area who you can get in contact with. And unfortunately, statistically, children represent the highest casualty rates.”
Download
There is no media available to download.
