Unifeed
SOMALIA / EXPLOSIVES
STORY: SOMALIA / EXPLOSIVES
TRT: 2.26
SOURCE: AU / UN IST
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 29 MARCH 2013 MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
1. Pan left, Mogadishu beach front
2. Med shot, military truck carrying unexploded ordinance (UXO)
3. Wide shot, military truck carrying UXOs
4. Wide shot, AMISOM soldiers digging in the sand
5. Close up, sand being dug up
6. Tilt down, soldiers offloading UXOs
7. Wide shot, soldiers removing rockets from the back of the truck
8. Various shots, AMISOM soldiers offloading unexploded ordnance
9. Wide shot, UXOs displayed on the ground
10. Close up, mortar on the ground
11. Med shot, UXOs on the ground
12. Close up, more UXOs
13. Close up, new and old UXOs
14. Med shot, AMISOM soldier placing the UXOs in the dug up holes
15. Med shot, soldier putting UXO into the hole
16. Med shot, UXO being buried for detonation
17. Wide shot, soldiers passing picking up and carrying UXO
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Private James Kasekende, Team Leader, AMISOM:
“It is very important to destroy these things, because you know if they are like that, these guys, we call them al Shabaab, they can pick them, they get the explosives in them, then they use them to make homemade bomb which they can use to target our convoys and their fellow Somalis, so that why we have to demolish them. To make sure that the whole of Somalia is free of these things.”
19. Med shot, AMISOM soldier laying plastic explosives on the UXO
20. Close up, plastic explosives being placed in detonation pit
21. Med shot, soldier rigging the explosives
22. Close up, explosives
23. Tracking shot, soldier placing the detonation cord
24. Wide shot, soldier with detonation cord
25. Close up, soldier’s face with reflection in his sunglasses
26. Med shot, soldier’s hand on the detonator
27. Med shot, AMISOM soldier pressing the detonator
28. Med shot, explosion going off
29. Wide shot, explosion
A convoy of military vehicles makes its way to a secluded area in the Medina District of Mogadishu.
Since the departure of extremist group al Shabaab in 2011, Somalia’s National Security Forces and their African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) partners, have been collecting and destroying unexploded ordnance (UXOs) from all over the Somali capital.
Explosive stockpiles, weapons, ammunition caches and Improvised Explosive Device (IED) abandoned by the besieged al Qaeda-linked group continue to pose grave threats to civilians, government soldiers and AMISOM troops.
This is in addition to the detritus of war left after decades of civil conflict.
Since its inception in Somalia, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has trained over 1,000 Somali police, AMISOM and humanitarian staff, not only in IED detection, removal, counter-IED operations and medical procedures but in disposal as well.
Private James Kasekende - of the Ugandan contingent of AMISOM - was one of the trainees and is now an Explosive Ordinance (EOD) team leader.
SOUNDBITE (English) Private James Kasekende, Team Leader, AMISOM:
“It is very important to destroy these things, because you know if they are like that, these guys, we call them al Shabaab, they can pick them, they get the explosives in them, then they use them to make homemade bomb which they can use to target our convoys and their fellow Somalis, so that why we have to demolish them. To make sure that the whole of Somalia is free of these things.”
Kasekende and his team, alongside their Burundian counterparts and UNMAS mentors, endeavour to demolish a stockpile of UXOs each week. They detonated about 75 kilograms of explosives on this outing under strict safety guidelines that are closely coordinated with local government officials.
According to UNMAS, nearly every community in south-central Somalia suffers from a degree of Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) contamination and few have the support or capacity to deal with these threats.
The UN department reports that more than 15,000 items of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) were safely destroyed.
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