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) NPA Mine Action Sudan Logobero Camp Yei River County Central Equatoria Page 1 www.npaid.org/sudan Norwegian People’s Aid Mine Action Programme in Sudan 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 South Sudan, 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. NPA Mine Action Sudan Logobero Camp Yei River County Central Equatoria Page 2 www.npaid.org/sudan Norwegian People’s Aid Mine Action Programme in Sudan 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 Juba – Kajo Keji 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. NPA Mine Action Sudan Logobero Camp Yei River County Central Equatoria Page 3 www.npaid.org/sudan Norwegian People’s Aid Mine Action Programme in Sudan 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. NPA Mine Action Sudan Logobero Camp Yei River County Central Equatoria Page 4 www.npaid.org/sudan Norwegian People’s Aid Mine Action Programme in Sudan 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, Yei County Loka West, Lainya County Loka Secondary School, Lainya County Findings in 1st Quarter Anti- Tank Mines: 2 UXO’s: 991 Anti- Personnel Mines: 65 SAA: 591 NPA Mine Action Sudan Logobero Camp Yei River County Central Equatoria Page 5 www.npaid.org/sudan Norwegian People’s Aid Mine Action Programme in Sudan 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.