GOSS Should Prioritise De-Mining Efforts, Expert Advises The South Sudan De-mine Authority informed the press in Juba that the post-referendum period in South Sudan will stand a big challenge that affects wider investments due to existence of mines in the virtual independent nation. 25 March 2011 GOSS Should Prioritise De-Mining Efforts, Expert Advises Mr. Jurkuc Barach, SSDA Chairman addressing the media, Juba [©Gurtong]
By Waakhe Simon Wudu Juba, 24th March 2011 [Gurtong] – The South Sudan De-mine Authority informed the press in Juba that the post-referendum period in South Sudan will stand a big challenge that affects wider investments due to existence of mines in the virtual independent nation. Jurkuc Barach, the South Sudan De-mine Authority, SSDA, Chairperson said that, about fourteen Non-governmental Organizations operating in the field of de-mining will hand over their assessment by July to the Government of Southern Sudan, GOSS, as their contracts come to close. “About 3,560 anti personnel mines, and 1,461,426 fire arms among thousands of anti-tank mines have been demined so far,” Jurkuc said. This is due to the concerted efforts from both the Authorities and International partners. He said that, 18,000 kilometres of roads have so far been cleared and are accessible for trade and investment in the virtual independent nation amidst the interim period. However he underscored that a bigger portion of land in the region is still hazardous. Jurkuc further said that, despite efforts by the SSDA in coordination with the various organizations involved in freeing land from the mines, challenges still remain high and are expected to remain so even after the interim period. Despite larger areas being cleared and are now mine free, he pointed out that, the Greater Upper Nile region posses many mines which still need intervention to de-mine. “A lot is to be done. We are still having many of them,” he said. He added that as almost many issues in South Sudan are priority, de-mining is never number one in the GOSS priorities. He said this is one of the challenges that with the hand-over of NGOs after the interim, the new nation will face. “I urge the government and other stakeholders to be on our side and try to reflect that we are still having problems,” urged the Chairperson. He pointed out that following the work of the Authority, 968 persons have so far been reported killed because of the mines and that over one thousand suffered as mine victims. Jurkuc noted that despite efforts that much is being invested amidst the interim period in capacity building, there is still a gap on sensitization of the public on mine risk education. Posted in: Home -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
