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Edited News | UNMAS
Mine action in Afghanistan, Gaza, Nigeria, Sudan UNMAS, UNAMA 03 December 2025
STORY: Landmine action in Afghanistan – UNAMA UNMAS
TRT: 3 min 11s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 3 December 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Speakers:
• Nick Pond, Chief of Mine Action Section, UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
• Sediq Rashid, UNMAS Chief of Mine Action Programme in Sudan
• Edwin Faigmane, UNMAS Chief of the Mine Action Programme in Nigeria
• Julius Van Der Walt, UNMAS Chief, Mine Action Programme, Occupied Palestinian Territory
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot, Palais des Nations flag alley, nations’ flags flying, a sunny day.
- Wide, podium speakers at UN Information Service Press room in Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Nick Pond, Chief of Mine Action Section, UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA): “Afghanistan has the third highest explosive ordnance casualty figures in the world in 2024, with over 54 people per month killed and injured by explosive ordnance; and of those 54 people, 80 per cent are children.”
- Medium-wide, podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Nick Pond, Chief of Mine Action Section, UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA): “It tends to be kids, mostly boys in the hills tending sheep and goats and they are picking up things of interest and playing with them or throwing stones at them and killing or injuring themselves.”
- Medium, participant recording video on phone.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Nick Pond, Chief of Mine Action Section, UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA): “Despite having the third highest number of casualties, the team has dropped and dropped, and in fact, in 2011 there were 15,000 people working in demining, and now we've got about 1,300.”
- Medium-wide, TV screens showing speakers and Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Sediq Rashid, UNMAS Chief of Mine Action Programme in Sudan: “We are deeply concerned about the situation in El Fasher. El Fasher was besieged for more than 500 days and the shelling never stopped. Even now, you know [it] is not completely stopped. And there are reports of the presence of landmines as well, so it's very concerning and the access is a big challenge to that area. And also the next hotspot, as you all know, is the Kordofan.”
- Medium-wide, podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Julius Van Der Walt, UNMAS Chief, Mine Action Programme, Occupied Palestinian Territory: “After two years of intensive fighting and with explosive weapons being deployed by all parties to the conflict, the scale of explosive ordinance contamination in Gaza is absolutely immense.”
- Medium-wide, participants in Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Julius Van Der Walt, UNMAS Chief, Mine Action Programme, Occupied Palestinian Territory: “The contamination is directly threatening the community and obstructing essential support to the Strip’s 2.1 million residents by restricting lifesaving humanitarian operations, slowing early recovery efforts and making critical reconstruction extremely dangerous.”
- Wide, podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Sediq Rashid, UNMAS Chief of Mine Action Programme in Sudan: “The five clearance teams, all of them are in Khartoum because the need is so big there and they are - they're not doing systematic clearance - they are responding to critical priorities.”
- Cutaway: TV screens showing speaker, Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Edwin Faigmane, UNMAS Chief of the Mine Action Programme in Nigeria: “They started closing down IDP camps and then encouraging people to go back to their communities of origin or to areas of resettlement. Unfortunately, our analysis shows that 80 per cent of all of the civilian casualties are happening in 11 of the 15 areas of return.”
- Cutaway: TV screens showing speaker, Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) — Edwin Faigmane, UNMAS Chief of the Mine Action Programme in Nigeria: “We started working with the security forces, the police and civil defence to train their officers to deliver risk education in areas that are hard to reach. And that has been paying of dividends, as we have begun receiving reports back from the police or from community members saying that they found an item and that they've reported it to the village authorities or village leaders, who then reported on to the security and the military forces.”
- Cutaway: ¨Press room participants.
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