\t\t\t\tImprovised Explosive Devices (IEDs) remain one of the single most threats to civilian population in Somalia with children adversely affected, the UN has said adding terror groups in the country were exploiting explosive remnants of war (ERW) to assemble IEDs.<\/p>\n
Speaking during the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action in Mogadishu Wednesday, deputy UN chief in Somalia Peter de Clercq said children in particular were at a risk of landmines and ERWs left behind after years of conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach year, 75 children are killed or injured by mines and explosive remnants of war in this country. And the impact on lives and livelihoods therefore is devastating,\u201d said Mr. de Clercq.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany more people are killed through these improvised explosive devices along Somalia\u2019s roads and across its cities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Years of armed conflict in Somalia have resulted in widespread contamination with ERW and landmines, as well as a steady rise in the use of IEDs \u2013 the latter remain the deadliest threat to lives in the Horn of Africa country and were responsible for killing and injuring more than 1,400 civilians last year, according to the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS).<\/p>\n
TRUCK BOMBING<\/p>\n
The October 14 truck bombing in Mogadishu which killed over 500 people and injured more than 300 others exemplified the threat mines posed to the country with de Clercq describing as \u201cone of the worst\u201d IED bombings to ever occur in Africa.<\/p>\n
The UN top official called for scaling up of mine action programmes noting this could \u2018play an important role in providing jobs in rural areas and improving livelihoods by making roads passable and allowing for the movement of goods and people\u2019.<\/p>\n
The theme for this year\u2019s observance of the international day is \u201cthe role of mine action in advancing protection, peace and development,\u201d underscoring the obstacle that IEDs, landmines and unexploded ordnance represent to the country\u2019s economic growth and development.<\/p>\n
Also addressing the observance, the Head of UNMAS in Somalia, Alan MacDonald, stressed the importance of removing all unexploded ordnance and landmines, the contents of which are often used to assemble IEDs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe explosive remnants of war, of unexploded ordnance and landmines, are being used as the material to build IEDs. The biggest problem that Somalia has is the IED threat, and if we can remove the unexploded ordnance and the landmines, we will remove some of the elements of that threat,\u201d Mr. McDonald said.<\/p>\n
DISPOSAL INITIATIVES<\/p>\n
In his remarks today, the Director General of the Somalia Explosive Management Authority (SEMA), Abdulkadir Abdulle Hooshow, called for more donor support for mine disposal initiatives in the country. He said his agency has developed a national mine action strategy to guide mine disposal programmes for the next three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no proper investment in efforts to dispose of mines in Somalia and there is insufficient stakeholder coordination. There is also insufficient international funding for landmine disposal programmes and poor training,\u201d said Mr. Hooshow.<\/p>\n
The UN General Assembly in 2005 declared April 4\u00a0the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action calling for continued efforts\u00a0 \u2013 with the assistance of the United Nations and relevant organizations \u2013 to foster the establishment and development of national mine-action capacities in countries where mines and ERW constitute a serious threat to civilian populations, or an impediment to social and economic development at the national and local levels.<\/p>\n
Somalia is a signatory to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines, which requires countries to destroy all such landmines by October 2022.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) remain one of the single most threats to civilian population in Somalia with children adversely affected, the UN has said adding terror groups in the country were exploiting explosive remnants of war (ERW) to assemble IEDs. Speaking during the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action in Mogadishu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"content-type":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[183],"class_list":{"0":"post-3792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news-in-english"},"authors":[{"term_id":183,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"admin","display_name":"admin","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e2230b2cd869f5a19d3c243e4a0524af083a4461319b6a5e8449b027ba16c929?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/faafitv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/faafitv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/faafitv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/faafitv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/faafitv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/faafitv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/faafitv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/faafitv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/faafitv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/faafitv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3792"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/faafitv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=3792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}