Norwegian People’s Aid Mine Action Programme in Sudan

NPA MINE ACTION 1ST QUARTERLY REPORT 2009 – 1 JANUARY TO 31 MARCH

Report Date: 8th April 2009

General

The tragic mine incident in Lainya on the 22nd February 2009, is a reminder of the mine threat in Sudan. The incident happened when a lorry transporting building materials hit an anti tank mine, killing the driver and injuring one passenger. As described in the Programme Plan 2009, Lainya is our main project for the last half of the year. During the assessment of Lainya in connection to the incident, we also located a badly secured and maintained SPLA ammunition store. This was taken up with SPLA immediately, but so far SPLA has not taken action.

The draft of the UNMAO Multi Year Plan has been released, and with the purpose to demonstrate the commitments on part of the mine action sector in Sudan to implement mine action activities in accordance with the National Strategic Framework and towards meeting national and international obligations, most importantly the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty. In this draft it appears that UNMAO are committed to a transition to the National Authorities (SSDC) as of June 2011. Reference is made to NPA in the South Region Logframe. We are also a potential partner, as an INGO, for the Capacity Development activities.

Personnel, Capacity Building and Training

Due to Charles Frisby leaving the Sudan Mine Action programme, there have been done some changes in the management:  Kjell Ivar Breili has stepped up from Deputy Programme Manager to Programme Manager.  Bruce Elliot has stepped up from Senior Technical Advisor to Deputy Programme Manager.  Phillipus Fouche has stepped up from Technical Advisor to Senior Technical Advisor.

On the 31 March the programme consisted of the following staff:  Nationals: 262  International: 8  Total: 270 (26% females)

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Boboya James (former Survey supervisor) has left our programme and started up as Programme Assistant in NPA Development Programme Sudan. His contribution to our programme has been highly appreciated, and we wish him good luck in the new job.

Georg Awu Awile (former EOD / BAC supervisor) has left our programme and started up Quality Assurance Officer in the SSDC Yei office. His contribution to our programme has been highly appreciated, and we wish him good luck in the new job.

The Annual Operations Meeting was held between 23 – 27 February. This year the NPA Lebanon programme was hosts, and from NPA MA Sudan we had two representatives – Lado Victor and Kjell Ivar Breili.

An Information Management Workshop was held in Jordan between 30 March – 3 April. All NPA MA programmes were represented, and from Sudan Augustino Seja and Ikram Shehu attended.

The following training has been conducted for national staff:  Instructor Course for NPA supervisors (7 days), held by the professors from a Norwegian University (Høyskolen i Akerhus).  Monitoring and Evaluation course (7 days) for Mawa Alison – Administrator, held by NPA HO  HIV / AIDS awareness for all staff (1 day), held by ARC Yei.  Malaria awareness for all staff (1 day), held by PSI, Yei.

In first quarter we have conducted the following training for SSDC staff:  Introduction course in Mine Action (14 days), held by QA office – Lado Victor  Publicity and Communication training (5 days) held by Communication Advisor – Benjamin Dix  Medical coordinator attachment (30 days), followed up by Medical Supervisor - John Taban  GIS / IMSMA attachment (14 days), followed up by Technical Advisor – Ikram Shehu

Security

The first quarter of 2009 has renewed the international attention on Sudan, due to the ICC issuing the arrest warrant on Sudan’s president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity along with genocide in the ethnic war in Darfur. International attention has also been on the LRA activity in Democratic Republic of Congo and , and the combined operations with Ugandan Army, SPLA and DRC army to “eliminate” LRA. Neither of these incidents has affected the programme in any direct ways.

In the reporting period we have seen an increased number of inter clan fighting in Jonglei State, Lakes State and Warrap State. The clashes in Jonglei State have so far had a direct impact in our Programme Plan 2009, since it has enabled us to deploy.

In end of March, Yei town and some other towns and border crossings was occupied by the war veterans. This was to get attention from the government for not getting their salaries for the last 5 months. Due to this, no transport was allowed either in or out of Yei, and we had to close operations for 2 days.

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Operations

Deployment This year the programme did not have any difficulties in the beginning of the year. All teams deployed quickly to their field camps, and refreshment training was conducted. All teams had an internal quality assurance visit before operations started. The following projects were worked on in this reporting period:  Morobo project  Kenyi project  Loka project  – road project

The manual teams have been deployed to all the different projects, either conducting manual demining or follow up after one of the machines. The main manual activity is in the Morobo Project, where we at the moment have 6 teams deployed.

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The MineWolf have worked on Loka Project and Kenyi Project in the reporting period. During the whole period it has worked with the tiller.

The Bagger assisted with processing ground at Lutaia. Then it deployed to the Juba – Kajo Keji project, initially verifying absence of mines close to Juba. Then it deployed to Kajo Keji where it assisted UN and MAG with vegetation cutting in a minefield on the Juba – Kajo Keji road. We are very pleased that the UN took initiative on this task, and we are hoping we also in the future can use the Bagger to assist other UN funded organizations where needed.

The BAC teams have worked in Kegulu Forest, south of Yei on the DRC road, on two different stock piles.

The EOD teams have had to focus on assisting the BAC teams with demolition, and the manual teams with destruction of found mines. Due to the changes in the team structure, we need to conduct an EOD course for all new team leaders, before they are accredited to do demolition themselves. This training will be conducted as soon as our EOD Technical Advisor arrives in the programme. So take this in consideration when looking at the result. All demolitions conducted in the programme in this reporting period have been executed by one of the EOD teams. The difficulties of getting hold of explosives have had an impact on the number of spot tasks the EOD teams have done in this reporting period. For this type of tasks the teams need TNT.

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One survey team has been accredited for route survey this year, and has worked on the Juba – Kajo Keji resurvey project throughout the reporting period. This team was initially planned to be used for route survey in Jonglei State, but due to the security situation, we agreed with UNMAO and SSDC to reallocate them to the Juba – Kajo Keji Project. The other survey teams have finished the resurvey of Yei – Kaya corridor, the resurvey of the Limbe – Kajo – Keji corridor and done a resurvey of the Yei center (5 mile radius from center).

The TIA team has focused on gathering and updating impact information in the different areas we have planned to work this year, and to enable us to prepare Project Plans. They have also conducted visits to all communities where we have ongoing operations.

Productivity in 1st Quarter  Manual teams have cleared 22,832 m2, verified 663 m2 and visually searched 300,169 m2.  MineWolf and and MineWolf Bagger have processed 300,169 m2.  BAC teams have surface cleared 62,330 m2 and sub- surface cleared 6,260 m2.  EOD teams have completed 7 spot tasks.

Land Released in 1st Quarter During the reporting period we have competed 4 tasks, and the following have been achieved: Area released by clearance: 25,709 m2 Area released by tech survey: 50,211 m2 Area released by non tech survey: 30,006 m2 Total Land Released: 105,926 m2 Note! The reason for the “mismatch” in total land released compared with productivity is due to the fact that the MineWolf worked in Rwanda the last 6 months of 2008, and we only had the Bagger in country to process the ground last quarter of 2008.

The tasks completed are:  Andukase, Morobo County  Lutaia,  Loka West,  Loka Secondary School, Lainya County

Findings in 1st Quarter  Anti- Tank Mines: 2  UXO’s: 991  Anti- Personnel Mines: 65  SAA: 591

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Stakeholders and Visitors

On 22 January Charles Frisby (NPA MA Programme Manager) and Elias Mistlale (NPA Sudan Country Director) visited Khartoum and the Japanese Embassy, to attend the Grant Signing Ceremony. We are very proud and honored to have a new donor on our side. The Mini MineWolf has proven to be an effective and useful machine in South Sudan. Having it in our toolbox, will have a big impact on our productivity and land release. We thank the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for thrusting us, and we will do our outmost to fulfill our obligations.

Mr. Yuichi Ishii and Dr. Elias Mistlale during the Grant Signing Ceremony in the Japanese Emassy.

On 23 – 24 January NPA MA staff participated in a helicopter recce along the River Nile from Juba to Nimule together with representatives from GOSS and Fitchner. On this recce we landed at the 4 sports where GOSS have plans to build Hydro Power Stations; Fula 2, Shokkoli, Laki and Bedden Falls. This is a billion dollar project, and NPA MA have been tasked to conduct survey along the roads leading to the different locations.

Between 5 – 6 February we had a visit from USDOS and UNMAO. The focus of the visit was the BAC and EOD operations, so they visited the BAC teams in Kegulu. They also manage to visit the manual and mechanical operations in Kenyi Project.

Peter Villano with the BAC team in Kegulu.

MineWolf operations manager – Paul Collinson visited our programme between 3 – 4 February.

On 9 February Rigmor Koti, from the NMFA visited the Juba – Kajo Keji Project, while the MineWolf Bagger was operating on SS-683, on the road linking the Yei – Juba road with Juba – Kajo Keji road.

Rigmor Koti at the Juba – Kajo Keji Project.

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We have been introduced to the new UNDP mine action coordinator - Ralph Hassal. We are wishing him all the best, when he reports to his new mission within April this year. We are looking forward to cooperate with him, especially on the capacity building of the national mine action bodies.

We are about to finish an agreement with the Swiss Army, for them to attach a technical advisor to our programme for a certain period. We have asked for a technical advisor on EOD, and hope that he will be operational in the programme within April.

Administration

All bigger investments have been requested on the NMFA, GFFO and DMFA budgets for 2009.

The Mini MineWolf has been sent from Germany, and is expected to arrive in South Sudan within mid May.

A logistic workshop was conducted with all NPA MA logistic staff between 6-7 February. Focus was the logistical chain, and explaining the different processes and responsibilities. New procedures were presented and a tighter follow up by the Programme Officer was initiated.

We have got a renting agreement free of charge on two Casspirs, one Man 8 x 8 truck and one small truck from WFP/UNMAO. The Casspirs have been put straight into the route survey tasks, and the trucks as support vehicles for the mechanical operations. We also assisted UNMAO / MineWolf in getting spare tyres and spare parts from Yei to Wau in February using these trucks.

We have established a garden in the Base camp. Hopefully this will enable us to supply the camp kitchen and field kitchens with fresh vegetables and fruits.

During the whole reporting period we have had difficulties on getting TNT procured. With the assistance from SSDC it looks like the problem is solved, and we hope to receive TNT in early April.

NPA MA workshop assisted with temporarily repairing the Yei River Bridge, to make it possible to keep the main logistical corridor in to Juba open.

The road conditions in Central Equatoria are at times demanding, and we have had some challenges getting the Bagger from one area of operations to another

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CONCLUSIONS

The programme is in line with the Programme Plan 2009. We manage to adapt quickly to another high priority task, when Jonglei was insecure and difficult to access. Now going into the rainy season, the focus will continue to be on Central Equatoria region. We have given signals to UNMAO that we also this year are willing to assist with running the UN MineWolf, when the UN contractors go on stand down.

Our medics will start rotation at Kuluva hospital in Uganda. We are the only organization doing this and it is an invaluable part of keeping the medics clinical skills up to date.

The low oil price at the moment looks to have a big impact on the income to GOSS, which results in “low priority activities” not being paid. This has already happened with teachers, nurses and now recently war veterans. I also think we in the future will see initiative from GOSS trying to implement system of non-oil revenue collection. One “hot spot” might be the tax exemption NGO’s so far have had on brining supplies to their respective programmes.

On behalf of the programme I would like to thank Charles for his hard work in the programme, and wish him good luck in Laos. His way of running the programme is a good guideline for us that are taking over.

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NPA Mine Action Sudan thanks its donors for the 2009 funding period:

Dutch Ministry of German Federal Foreign Office Norwegian Ministry of Foreign US Department of Foreign Affairs Affairs State

Japan’s Official Development The United Nations Voluntary Assistance Trust Fund for Assistance to Mine Action

NPA Mine Action Sudan Partners:

South Sudan Mine United Nations Mine Action World Food Programme MineWolf Systems AG Action Authority Office, Sudan

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