Sudan conflict raises familiar specter of a landmine-contaminated wasteland

Sudan and South Sudan are among the nations most impacted by unexploded ordnance. (UNMAS)
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Updated 31 January 2024
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Sudan conflict raises familiar specter of a landmine-contaminated wasteland

  • Social media posts and recent tragedy suggest use of device becoming more common by warring sides
  • Indiscriminate weapon and other unexploded ordnance make no distinction between combatants and civilians

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania: Ten Sudanese civilians were killed on Jan. 20 when the bus they were traveling in struck a land mine on a road in Al-Jazirah state, south of Sudan’s capital Khartoum, where fighting between rival military factions has been ongoing since April last year.

The tragedy’s aftermath was marked by a deafening silence from the warring parties, the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces. However, the incident, reportedly the first of its kind in this war, has revealed a perilous new reality for Sudan.

The UN Mine Action Service is yet to examine the site of the blast, so the type of explosive device used has not been confirmed. Social media users in Sudan, however, say the use of antipersonnel land mines is becoming more common, posing a deadly new threat to civilians.

“Prior to the onset of the ongoing crisis, the UN assisted victims of land mines and other explosive remnants of war,” Mohammad Sediq Rashid, head of the Sudan Mine Action Programme and part of the UN peace operation, told Arab News.




As Sudan absorbs the worrying precedent set by the Jan. 20 bus tragedy, its struggle is all too familiar elsewhere in the region. (AFP/File)

“Since the conflict started, we have been driving awareness-raising campaigns among internally displaced people, refugees, and frontline humanitarian actors by alerting the risks and promoting safe behaviors.”

The vehicle caught in the explosion was reportedly transporting passengers from the east of the state, seized by the RSF in late December, to Shendi, a small town in River Nile state, known for its ancient pyramids.

Since there is no history of land mines being used in this area, allegations are circulating on social media suggesting that the device may have been planted relatively recently by the SAF in a bid to frustrate the RSF advance into the region.

Given the inability to independently verify what took place, it is impossible to apportion blame. However, if more of these devices have been planted across Al-Jazirah and elsewhere, bitter experience suggests this tragedy will not be the last.

Produced for as little as a dollar, these indiscriminate weapons make no distinction between combatants and civilians, remaining primed in the earth for several decades, long after a conflict has ended.

The devastating impact of land mines and other unexploded ordnance extends beyond the immediate toll on lives and limbs. They can impede communities’ access to valuable land, hindering agricultural activities and the construction of essential facilities such as hospitals and schools.




Produced for as little as a dollar, these indiscriminate weapons make no distinction between combatants and civilians. (UNMAS)

Rashid says education is a critical part of the land mine response. “Children, in particular, are vulnerable, drawn to the curious appearance of remnants without fully grasping the danger,” he said.

And the impact of antipersonnel land mines exploding can be long lasting. “The consequences encompass not only physical injuries but also psychological trauma, economic deprivation, and social exclusion,” he added.

In the global context, approximately 61 countries and regions are currently grappling with the persistent threat of land mine contamination, exposing thousands of individuals to the daily risk of life-changing injuries and death.

Among those nations, Sudan stands out as one of the most severely impacted by antipersonnel land mines and unexploded ordnance, according to UN classification.

Unlike China, India, Pakistan, Russia and the US, Sudan has ratified the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, commonly referred to as the Mine Ban Treaty. However, successive Sudanese governments have failed to meet their obligations under the convention.

Antipersonnel land mines have been used by combatants in Sudan across multiple conflicts. During these periods of protracted strife, all parties involved have deployed these devices, leaving behind a legacy of contamination.




Sudan stands out as one of the most severely impacted by antipersonnel land mines and unexploded ordnance, according to UN classification. (UNMAS)

Before the current crisis, marked by more than 13,000 reported fatalities, Sudan had begun the arduous task of clearing land mines. But with a contaminated area encompassing more than 172 million square meters of land, it took more than two decades to clear just 80 percent of them.

Now this latest bout of violence has introduced further contamination, extending the demining timeline, with experts estimating that the time needed to eliminate all explosive ordnance in Sudan could take generations.

The complexity deepens when mines are planted in urban areas. Towns and cities, which will be vital for the post-conflict recovery, will face a daunting task of clearing explosive remnants after the war ends.

Given that much of Sudan’s demining focus has been on rural areas, additional training will be needed to handle urban clearance operations.

Similarly, in South Sudan, which declared independence from Sudan in 2011, unexploded ordnance continues to maim and kill despite commendable efforts to remove it.

“Our communities have learned to live with the land mines and have learned how to avoid them; yet land mines still continue to damage human lives, animals and vegetation,” Suzanne Jambo, a South Sudanese political analyst, told Arab News.

Moreover, unexploded ordnance complicates the already challenging delivery of humanitarian aid and commercial goods.




Sudan plunged into chaos after monthslong tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, left, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting last April. (AFP/File)

Mukesh Kapila, the former UN representative in Sudan, who previously spearheaded an initiative to demine major roads leading to South Sudan, emphasized “the critical nature of such programs for the secure repatriation of refugees from neighboring countries.”

Given that Sudan has seen the displacement of some 1.4 million people across its borders since mid-April, many of them seeking safety in Chad, South Sudan, and Egypt, reinstating such demining efforts has become imperative.

“Back then, we faced the challenge of reinforcing UN aid vehicles with ballistic blankets before dispatching food convoys,” Kapila told Arab News. “In the Nuba Mountains, the land mines were basic and manufactured within Sudan using Iranian technology.”

FASTFACTS

• 13,000 Sudan death toll estimated by the ACLED project.

• 10 months of fighting as of January between SAF and RSF.

• 10.7m people forced from their homes since April 2023 (IOM).

The international community, through organizations like UNMAS, has historically played a role in assisting victims of explosions of land mines and other remnants of war.

Rehabilitation efforts encompass medical support, vocational training, and community sensitization.

However, the ongoing conflict in Sudan has added layers of complexity to the situation. Hospitals and essential service providers, already strained by violence, face challenges in offering assistance.

The vulnerability of land mine victims has intensified as humanitarian access becomes increasingly challenging.

The picture is similar in other parts of the Arab world where conflict has left the land saturated with explosive remnants.

Maj. Gen. A.K. Bardalai, a former deputy head of mission and deputy force commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, said one of the main challenges is accurately identifying the affected areas and the quantity of mines.

“In the absence of records, clearing agencies must proceed cautiously, making the process time-consuming and laborious,” he told Arab News. “Determining precise timelines for complete demining in Africa is also challenging.”

Drawing on his experience in Lebanon, where cluster munitions were left over from fighting with Israel, Bardalai said demining efforts can take decades, even when combatants supply clearance teams with detailed records of where antipersonnel land mines were planted and ordnance fell.

When these records are not provided or not made at all, then clearance operations can take even longer.




The UN Mine Action Service is yet to examine the site of the Jan. 20 blast in Al-Jazirah state. (UNMAS)

As Sudan absorbs the worrying precedent set by the Jan. 20 bus tragedy, its struggle is all too familiar elsewhere in the region. The parallel experiences of Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gaza underscore the universal challenges posed by land mines.

The Mines Advisory Group, a British nongovernmental organization, says Gaza faces years of clearance work due to the density of unexploded ordnance. The West Bank, too, has suffered more than 60 years of land mine contamination.

Unless a lasting ceasefire can be reached between the SAF and RSF, Sudan will no doubt see further contamination, setting back its recovery by decades and putting future generations at risk.

 


UN chief calls for probe into deaths near Gaza aid site

Updated 54 min 8 sec ago
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UN chief calls for probe into deaths near Gaza aid site

  • Antonio Guterres says he is appalled by reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid
  • Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 people and wounded 176 near aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah

GAZA: UN chief Antonio Guterres called Monday for an independent investigation into the killing of dozens of Palestinians near a US-backed aid center in Gaza after rescuers blamed the deaths on Israeli fire and the military denied any involvement.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 people and wounded 176 near the aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, with AFP photos showing civilians at the scene carting away bodies and medics at nearby hospitals reporting a deluge of gunshot wound victims.
The Israeli military, however, denied its troops had fired on civilians in or around the center, and both it and the aid site’s administrator accused Hamas of sowing false rumors.
“I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday. It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” Guterres said in a statement, without assigning blame for the deaths.
“I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”
The Israeli government has cooperated with the group running the site, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), to introduce a new mechanism for distributing aid in Gaza that has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system.
The UN has declined to work with the group out of concerns about its neutrality, with some aid agencies saying it appears designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
An eyewitness from the scene in Rafah, Sameh Hamuda, 33, had told AFP he was headed toward the aid site amid a crowd of other Palestinians when “quadcopter drones opened fire on the people, and tanks started shooting.”
“Several people were killed right in front of me,” he said.
Another witness, Abdullah Barbakh, 58, also told AFP “the army opened fire from drones and tanks.”
Following the reports, the Israeli army said an initial inquiry found its troops “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site.”
Army spokesman Effie Defrin said in a video message that “Hamas is doing its best, its utmost, to stop us from” distributing aid, and vowed to “investigate each one of those allegations” against Israeli troops.
“I urge you not to believe every rumor spread by Hamas,” he added.
GHF also denied any deaths or injuries took place, adding that “these fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas.”
Israel has come under increasing international pressure to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza following a more than two-month blockade on aid that was only recently eased.
The UN has warned the entire population of the territory is facing the risk of famine.
It has also reported recent incidents of aid being looted, including by armed individuals.


Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and the return of hostages taken by Hamas during its October 2023 attack that triggered the war have failed to produce a breakthrough.
Militants took 251 hostages during the attack, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
After the two sides failed to agree on a new ceasefire proposal last week, Hamas said it was ready to “immediately begin a round of indirect negotiations to reach an agreement on the points of contention.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, meanwhile, said he had told the army “to continue forward in Gaza against all targets, regardless of any negotiations.”
Since a brief truce collapsed in March, Israel has intensified its operations to destroy Hamas.
On Monday, Gaza’s civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said 14 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza, “including six children and three women, in addition to more than 20 missing individuals still under the rubble.”
“This house has been bombed before... and people were martyred previously,” resident Mousa Al-Bursh told AFP.
“The house primarily belongs to the Al-Bursh family, but it shelters many others, more than one family, and we don’t know the number of victims inside.”
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 4,201 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,470, mostly civilians.
Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.


Nearly 41% of kidney patients died in Gaza as Israel destroys major dialysis center

Updated 02 June 2025
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Nearly 41% of kidney patients died in Gaza as Israel destroys major dialysis center

  • Israeli forces destroyed the Noura Al-Kaabi Dialysis Center in northern Gaza
  • The facility was damaged amid the war and remained standing among the heavily ruined area of Beit Lahiya

LONDON: Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip revealed on Sunday that nearly half of the kidney failure patients in the coastal enclave have died since October 2023 amid ongoing Israeli attacks and restrictions on humanitarian and medical aid.

Israeli attacks on hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza barred 41 percent of kidney patients from accessing life-saving dialysis treatment, resulting in their deaths, according to the Wafa news agency.

On Saturday, Israeli forces destroyed the Noura Al-Kaabi Dialysis Center in northern Gaza, one of the few specialized facilities providing kidney dialysis to 160 patients.

Video footage appears to show Israeli military excavators completely demolishing the facility that was partly damaged amid the war and remained standing among the heavily ruined area of Beit Lahiya.

“The destruction of this center is a catastrophic blow to the health system,” a Palestinian medical source told Wafa, warning of dire consequences for the remaining kidney patients in Gaza.

“This is a disaster with consequences we cannot yet fully comprehend,” they added.


Israeli strike on Gaza kills 14 Palestinians, mostly women and children, hospitals say

Palestinians react at the site of an Israeli strike on a mosque, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, June 2, 2025.
Updated 02 June 2025
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Israeli strike on Gaza kills 14 Palestinians, mostly women and children, hospitals say

  • Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals confirmed the toll from the strike in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH: An Israeli strike on a residential building in the Gaza Strip on Monday killed 14 people, mostly women and children, according to health officials.
The Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals confirmed the toll from the strike in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, saying five women and seven children were among those killed.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militant group is entrenched in populated areas.
The Israel-Hamas war began when Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas is still holding 58 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s military campaign has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of the population.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout.
Israel has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned, and Hamas is defeated or disarmed and sent into exile. It has said it will maintain control of Gaza indefinitely and facilitate what it refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its population.
Palestinians and most of the international community have rejected the resettlement plans, viewing them as forcible expulsion.


Iraq probes fish die-off in southern marshes

Updated 02 June 2025
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Iraq probes fish die-off in southern marshes

NAJAF: Iraqi authorities on Monday launched a probe into a mass die-off of fish in the southern marshlands, the latest in a string of such events in recent years.
One possible cause for the localized die-off could be a shortage of oxygen sparked by low water flow, increased evaporation and rising temperatures fueled by climate change.
Another possible reason could be chemicals used by fishermen to make it easier to catch their prey, local officials and activists told AFP.
AFP images showed large quantities of silver fish floating in the marshlands of Ibn Najm near the southern city of Najaf.
Buffaloes could be seen surrounded by dead fish, trying to cool themselves off in the water.
“We have received several citizens’ complaints,” said chief environmental officer in Najaf, Jamal Abd Zeid, adding that a technical inspection team had been set up.
An AFP photographer at the site saw a team of civil servants collecting water from the marshland.
Among the issues the team was tasked with probing, Abd Zeid said, were a shortage of water, electrical fishing and the use by fishermen of “poisons.”
For at least five years, Iraq has been hit by successive droughts fueled by climate change.
Authorities also blame the construction of dams by neighboring Iran and Turkiye for the drastic drop in flow in Iraq’s rivers.
The destruction of Iraq’s natural environment is only the latest layer of suffering imposed on a country that has endured decades of war and political oppression.
“We need lab tests to determine the exact cause” of the fish die-off, said environmental activist Jassim Assadi.
A lack of oxygen caused by low water flow, heat, evaporation and wind were all possible reasons, he said.
He said agricultural pesticides could also have led to the mass die-off.
Probes into other similar events showed the use of poison in fishing led to mass deaths.
“It is dangerous for public health, as well as for the food chain,” Assadi said.
“Using poison today, then again in a month or two... It’s going to accumulate.”


Medical NGO blames new US aid group for deadly Gaza chaos

Updated 02 June 2025
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Medical NGO blames new US aid group for deadly Gaza chaos

  • Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian organizations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and effectively

RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said Sunday that people it treated at a Gaza aid site run by a new US-backed organization reported being “shot from all sides” by Israeli forces.
The NGO, known by its French name MSF, blamed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution system for chaos at the scene in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli fire killed 31 Palestinians at the site. Witnesses told AFP the Israeli military had opened fire.
The GHF and Israeli authorities denied any such incident took place but MSF and other medics reported treating crowds of locals with gunshot wounds at the Nasser hospital in the nearby town of Khan Younis.
“Patients told MSF they were shot from all sides by drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and Israeli soldiers on the ground,” MSF said in a statement.
MSF emergency coordinator Claire Manera in the statement called the GHF’s system of aid delivery “dehumanizing, dangerous and severely ineffective.”
“It has resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians that could have been prevented. Humanitarian aid must be provided only by humanitarian organizations who have the competence and determination to do it safely and effectively.”
MSF communications officer Nour Alsaqa in the statement reported hospital corridors filled with patients, mostly men, with “visible gunshot wounds in their limbs.”
MSF quoted one injured man, Mansour Sami Abdi, as describing people fighting over just five pallets of aid.
“They told us to take food — then they fired from every direction,” he said. “This isn’t aid. It’s a lie.”
The Israeli military said an initial inquiry found its troops “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site.”
A GHF spokesperson said: “These fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas,” the Islamic militant group that Israel has vowed to destroy in Gaza.