UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UNMAS Press conference

Good morning colleagues.

Thank you very much for joining us.

[Other language spoken]

So I'm Crystal Luke Forest, I am the representative of UN MAS here in Geneva and it's my honour to welcome four of our distinguished chief in our mind action programmes who came all the way from Gaza, Kabul, Khartoum and Nigeria, Maidu Gary, in order to talk to you a little bit closer, more in detail about what we actually doing in mine action on in the field.

As you know, this week is the 22nd meeting of the APNBC, the Anti Personal Mind Man Convention.

And for us this is a critical moment where we can do advocacy to universalise the Convention and defend humanitarian disarmament norm.

So this year Givens the rising challenge of explosive remnants of wars, improvised explosive device and anti personal landmines, challenging peace building, humanitarian and development efforts around the world.

The Secretary General has actually launched a campaign, a global campaign to reinvigorate international commitment to humanitarian disarmament and to accelerate mine action worldwide.

We have a number of countries which are the Champions of the Secretary General's campaign, Colombia, Canada, Austria, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, Algeria, Thailand, Cambodia and Croatia, who are helping us to really take forward this campaign.

So the main goals of the campaign are the following.

One, to defend humanitarian disarmament norms by reaffirming in every relevant relevant forum that the use, production or transfer of anti abyssal land mines is unacceptable under any circumstances and by promoting universal adherence to the Convention.

Second one, the goal, which is very important for us, is to strengthen mine action by supporting affected states through sustained financing, technology transfer, sharing of good practise and innovative partnership.

Recognise that mine action is both a humanitarian and development priority, and my colleagues from OMAS will tell you how we translate that in the field.

And thirdly, we are placing people at the centre of security by advancing a vision of security that prioritise civilian protection and sustainable development over militarised approaches and rising military expenditures.

And finally, the last goal on this campaign is to raise public awareness.

And here I really want to thank journalists who are covering stories related to the work that Mine Action does and also participating in global and national campaigns and education initiatives that highlight the you mentioned impact of land mines and other explosive ordinance.

It is incredibly important also because you can help us with risk education and, and risk management.

And in this context, I want to invite journalists who are interested in visiting any of the programmes to contact us, would be happy to, to facilitate a visit to, to, to some of our programmes.

So I'm going to stop here on the introduction and give the floor immediately to to Nick Pont, who is our Chief in Afghanistan where we have the longest programme, mine action programme over 30 years now and I've done an incredible job.

So Nick, what are the main challenges and what are the most important work you are doing right now in Afghanistan?

[Other language spoken]

Thanks very much, Crystal.

[Other language spoken]

I'll start with the context in Afghanistan briefly and then directly answer your question.

So the context from the latest report that's been published is 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% are children.

And interestingly, of those 54 per month that are killed and injured, 90% of those casualties are now from explosive remnants of war rather than from anti personnel, anti vehicle or improvised mines.

It tends to be kids, mostly boys in the hills tending sheep or goats, and they are picking up things of interest and playing with them or throwing stones at them and killing or injuring themselves.

However, against that backdrop, we only have 168 teams working in Afghanistan at the moment, which is about 1300 people.

And for context, that is more than 40% lower than this month last year and it's probably the lowest the number's ever been since the programme started in 1988.

So 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 1300.

However, that being said, my focus is on effective coordination of the teams that are working in Afghanistan to make sure that the national authority's DMAC, the Directorate for Mine Action Coordination, is technically competent, proficient and capable to manage the activities of those teams working across the country, albeit only 168 of them.

That Technical Support is provided through the only unmasked funded project in Afghanistan, which funds a team of Afghan technical consultants, 21 in total, to work alongside to provide the Technical Support to give coordination that's needed.

However, that organisation, known as the Mine Action Technical Cell, the MATC, is only funded until the 31st of March next year, when there will be no efficient coordination in the country again.

So my focus is keeping the MATC alive, keeping coordination working for whatever number of teams we have working in Afghanistan to address the situation.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

And thank you very much for for this update.

And I was looking at figures released by the Landmine Monitor in their latest report, which said that since 99, you know, the country with the highest cumulative number of recorded child casualties is Afghanistan, with 43% of all recorded child casualties worldwide.

So over 15,000 child casualties in Afghanistan, which is 43% of the total.

The total number of children killed and injured since 1999 is 30,000 and 154 children.

So I just wanted to put that in perspective.

So, so the work in Afghanistan is key to decreasing the number of casualties and remains.

So thank you, Nick, for doing that.

And maybe come later, you can tell us a little bit more about the work you're doing to with the Minister of Economy to ensure that all the projects that are, you know, started in Afghanistan have a risk management component to mitigate the risk of explosive owners.

So that's, that's, that's it for Afghanistan for now.

Now we're going to to turn to Mr Sedik Rashid, who actually started his career as AD minor in Afghanistan and is now the chief of own mass programme in Sudan.

Sedik, what is the most important work you're doing right now in Sudan?

Thank you very much, Crystal.

It's a pleasure to be here physically.

Sudan actually is experiencing conflicts since 1955, several conflicts.

Most of those conflicts have left behind land mines and a lot of unexploded ordnance.

But this conflict, which started in April 2023, is different.

Why it's different Because it's generally mostly happening in highly populated areas.

The conflict began in Khartoum, the capital of the country, which is was a city of 6 to 8 million people.

And then the conflict was extended to several other major urban centres.

So this so far, which unfortunately the conflict is still in full force.

[Other language spoken]

The unexploded ordnance contamination is increasing everyday.

So this explosive hazards is making the protection crisis in Sudan more complex.

And UNMAS is present in Sudan since 2002.

Before this ongoing war, Sudan had made a significant progress in terms of releasing the known contamination.

For example, all the three eastern states were declared free from known contamination and the the country was on track and we were hoping that Sudan will meet it's Ottawa treaty obligation by 2027.

But this conflict is obviously a significant set back and it's deeply concerning.

So what we do, first of all, like many other sectors in civilians, the the demand action sector was also heavily affected by the ongoing war.

We lost our equipment, the the ongoing operations were completely shut down.

But the programme was resilient, they were able to stand back.

As I speak now, the programme although is very, very small compared to the problem, but we are there on mass is present together with other implementing partners and we are pretty much implementing all the critical pillars of man action.

We started with a with an extensive awareness raising campaign, which is still needed a lot because based on an estimation that in Sudan there are about more than 14 million people that requires man action support and these are a lot of people.

And so we focused on this.

We send our available teams to the displaced population in in the safer areas of Sudan and this work continues as I speak.

And we also we are also doing direct risk education.

Another key element of our work is because the aid workers mostly are going to the conflict affected areas.

So they are at a very greater risk of being hit by explosive remnants of war and land mines.

So we are trying our best in offering our services to support them, to enable militarian operations, to make sure they are protected.

We give them advisory support and we receive a lot of requests.

For example, last week we were in Khartoum together with the UN team meeting beginning of this month.

Last month there was another joint mission to the capital in without home mass they they cannot go.

So, so we are doing a survey and clearance work.

They are the the teams are heavily engaged and busy.

We were able to clear for example, the runway of Khartoum airport is completed the UN terminal for the way coast for the airport that is also cleared.

So we are hoping that at some point Khartoum airport will become functional and that will make things much easier in terms of deploying the humanitarian aid workers to the area.

But I must say that the on the victim assistance side, which is one of the forgotten pillars of man action, there was a significant set back.

But we are restarting that as well, at least with, you know, looking at the, you know, engaging the stakeholders on to come up with the the way forward like a strategic planning and, and we have we are doing some limited referral work as well.

So and then the the significant part of our work is also coordination and stakeholders engagement, which is on masses area of focus.

And in terms of gap, I, I must highlight that the gap is, is significant.

The teams as I speak are only 5 clearance team.

Now we're hoping early next year, January, February, the teams will increase to 25.

But that's definitely not enough.

We, we, many other urban centres like Jazeera State experienced a lot of conflicts that need clearance capacity.

Also, we are deeply concerned about the situation in Al Farsher.

Al Fasher was besieged for more than 500 days and the shelling never stopped.

Even now, you know, 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.

A lot of people have been displaced.

Again, the conflict is happening in urban areas, in Baba Nusa, in Bahra, in all those cities in Alwaid.

So that is going to be another humanitarian emergency in terms of response.

And also I would like to highlight the return.

Return is happening now.

You know, this year more than 1.5 million people have returned to the capital and we are really concerned that people will go back to the contaminated areas and you know, that will make our life very, very difficult and there will be unfortunately many tragedies happening in terms of casualties.

Our reporting system is not comprehensive.

There are lots of accidents happen already and it's very, very clear.

And you had exploded ordinance is not different than Afghanistan or Syria or Nigeria or other programmes.

So they kill, they kill people and it's the same case in our the children are the most affected people.

And so with that, I'll stop back to you, Kristen.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Very great situation by a mic, Mike.

Yes, thank you very much.

Very sorry to hear about this very grim situation in in Sudan.

And let's hope that the conflict stops and we can scale up mine action to to ensure safe return for the the millions of people who've been displaced by this horrible conflict.

Talking about another situation where we've also seen a lot of bombings in urban areas, use of explosive weapons in populated areas is of course, Gaza.

And with this I'm going to give the floor to Mr Julius van der Vault, the chief of one mass programme in Gaza.

What are the main concern right now for the programme and opportunities for for progress as the the situation is changing rapidly?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Christelle.

Thank you very much colleagues.

It's really good to be part here and thanks for all the interest that's around the OPT programme of UNMAS at this point in time.

I think what is important for us to understand is that after two years of intensive fighting and with explosive weapons being deployed by all parties to the conflict, the scale of explosive ordnance contamination in Gaza is absolutely immense.

Explosive ordnance is one of the most indiscriminate threats in any conflict as it doesn't distinguish between humanitarian worker, a civilian, a soldier, a non state armed actor or as a matter of fact any one of us.

It's presence endangers everyone equally.

I think that's the common message that we are trying to draw through and and notify people about.

South in Gaza, the contamination is directly threatening the communities and obstructing essential support to the Strip's 2.1 million residents by restricting life saving humanitarian operations, slowing early recovery efforts and making critical reconstruction extremely dangerous.

Harsh living conditions are also forcing families into unsafe areas, dramatically increasing their exposure to explosive hazards.

Children are most bongs dosed as a most at risk as in many other conflict areas, and people are being injured simply by collecting basic necessities on a day-to-day basis.

Many families have no choice but to shelter in your area suspected of containing explosive ordinance, because safer alternatives simply do not exist.

At the same time, rising violence in the West Bank is increasing the risk of explosive ordinance contamination there as well.

With explosive hazards present in densely populated areas, refugee camps, urban centres and rural areas alike, communities are being forced to live side by side with deadly remnants of war in Gaza itself.

UNMAS works to reduce these risks by responding to the reports of explosive threats and to deliver or through delivering life saving risk education to both communities as well as to humanitarian workers.

We enable humanitarian and early recovery efforts by advising partners on potential explosive threats, hazards, wherever they may be going on the day-to-day business so that they can deliver assistance more safely and and more effectively.

Part of our support also includes accompanying convoys.

This is UN as well as humanitarian convoys, assessing critical sites for humanitarian aid delivery and ensuring that medical, shelter and other essential services can reach conflict affected communities in the West Bank.

We closely work with local partners, including the Palestinian Authorities Mine Action Centre and national NGOs to support the coordinated, locally LED mine action response and strengthen essential national capacities.

Since October 2023, UNMAS has accompanied more than 800 humanitarian convoys across Gaza and conducted over 650 explosive hazard assessments of hospitals, schools, roads, shelters and other vital infrastructure.

Together with local partners, we have also delivered risk education to more than 450,000 people across all governorates in Gaza.

With the ceasefire that's now in place since the 10th of October, there is a glimmer of hopeful for Gaza's recovery.

This moment warrants and expanded and sustained mine action response to meet the needs of the communities and support the massive reconstruction that lies ahead of us.

While challenges remain, any improvement in security and safety and access offers an opportunity to scale up and diversify our activities as mine action as an and as humanitarians to more comprehensively address the explosive threat in Gaza.

Humanitarian mine action operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is one of the most neutral, life preserving interventions.

It is not about anything else than saving lives, restoring dignity and ensuring that safer ground becomes a lasting reality for every community in this in the region.

Thank you, Crystal.

Thank you very much Julius and I really appreciate your your creativity and and willingness to try new things.

It's very difficult environment.

We've been focusing on the explosive hazard assessments to enable convoys over the past two years.

But now I know that you're already coming with a lot of ideas in order to, to basically remove the, the threats and, and to the scrap metals so that that we can, you know, make people safer and so they can return to their, their homes and, and, and, you know, restart their, their lives.

And it's going to take a long time to thank you also to the donors who have been helping us in Palestine and other countries to, to do the work we've, we've done.

It's been very dangerous on the front line very much of the conflict, but quite, I mean, a little bit of hope in this very difficult environment.

OK, Now we're going to turn to Edwin Figman from from our programme in Nigeria with also facing a very complex emergency.

Can you please tell us a little bit how you're leading the programme coordinating with key partners to to protect people in in Nigeria?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

My name is Edwin Fegmani and I was sent en masse in Nigeria.

The situation in Nigeria is complex.

In the northwest part of the country, we have a farmer herder conflict influenced by a newly designated terrorist group called the LA Kurawa faction with ties with the Islamic State.

In the North Central area, we have a, we have recorded only about two months ago, the first known attack of Jainan.

In the Southeast, we have the legacy of the Biafra wars from the 1960s and the northwest, an ongoing active non international conflict that has been ongoing since 2009.

And I'm going to focus on this.

This conflict has displaced about two to 3 million people depending on who you ask.

It has led to people becoming displaced into IDP camps or refugee camps across the border in Cameroon, Chad and GER.

Now this is a humanitarian crisis, a complex humanitarian crisis, just because it's an ongoing conflict, Boko Haram, Islamic State, West Africa province against the Nigerian government and it doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon.

People may think that there are hazardous areas.

Yes, there are hazardous areas, but we don't, we can't define it because it's an international, it's a active conflict.

There are no suspected hazardous areas.

There are no confirmed hazardous areas.

Our problem, the problem that we're facing are threats of improvised minds or minds of an improvised nature or IEDs.

This conflict.

So far in 2024, the Landmine Monitor reported 275 casualties.

Our records show that 421 civilian casualties were were recorded out of a total of 672.

So that's more than what the Landmine Monitor reported for 2024.

And this is the highest number that we had recorded since 2018.

And this is concerning because as of now we are now facing 287 civilian casualties.

That's that's as of October of this year.

Our response risk education is crucial.

People, well, people don't just live in the IPIDP camps, they go out to the field, they try to supplement their incomes.

And then in 2023, the government also implemented what they call the durable solutions for internal displacement, where they where 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 show that 80% of all of the civilian casualties are happening in 11 of the 15 areas of return.

So essentially people are going back to these areas that are dangerous.

So risk education needs to be delivered not only in the IDP camps but also in those areas of return.

We've done initiatives in trying to respond to this because not all of the the areas are accessible by humanitarian actors.

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 off 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.

But what we found out is that the the the disposal capacity of the government is lacking.

It takes days for them to be able to respond to these issues.

So we started looking at training the security forces, police, civil defence in terms of explosive ordinance disposal and IEDs, IED disposal.

So now we are conducting a training programme that we'll see by the end of February next year, the first IED and EOD teams from the police and civil Defence trained up to UN standards and that changes everything.

I believe a final note also is on victim assistance.

Risk education brings in a lot of information from communities, community engagement.

We've been collecting information as well on in terms of errors that they are worry of going into because they fear that it's contaminated.

But an essential component of this is that are federal services that we're able to do.

What we had found was a recent case study was with €119, we were able to restore the sight of a blind person who was injured, who got injured, got blind, blinded.

And then with that €119, he was able to see again after five years after the, the, the injury.

So this is I think a strong move for us to be able to work on mine action.

Final thoughts like Afghanistan.

Our funding is only until March 3030, first of March in 2026 so far.

And we're still waiting for news about confirmed funding beyond the date.

My greatest fear is that we've trained the police, we've trained community volunteers, we've trained people who are delivering risk education beyond March.

We lose that capacity if we don't find any more money.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Edwin.

And I wanted to add that in terms of the funding situation here, you have examples of two programmes that are currently reasonably well funded, which is Palestine and Sudan, and two programmes that are incredibly underfunded and, and may close by March unless we get donor funding.

And this is Afghanistan and Nigeria and it's the same for our programme in Ethiopia.

Yes, it's, it's unfortunately the situation where you know, the, the donor funding is often not very predictable.

So we are really doing a lot of outreach this week with our donors and to to try to have predictable funding for all the programmes that, that need it.

And in that regard, we have AUN voluntary trust fund for mine action, which used to have, you know, 200 million a year.

Last year when was very bad, it was only 40 million.

Now we're around 90 million, so so it's coming back, but two third of it is earmarked for for the three crises that are most in the in the in the limelight, which is of course, Palestine, Sudan and and Syria.

So we're also talking to journalists about, you know, keeping the focus on on crisis that maybe not so much in the in the headlines, but that also needs support if we are to one, protect people, but to enable development and and recovery in, in around the world in post conflict settings.

[Other language spoken]

So we are done with our presentations and now we look forward to your questions.

So please raise your hand if you would like to ask a question.

Maybe I'll start with the journalist within the room, Nick from the New York Times, please.

Yeah, thank you and thank you for all the presentations.

They were all actually very compelling.

I'd, I'd like to spend some time asking questions from all of you, but in out of deference to my colleagues, I'll, I'll confine myself maybe to the right hand side of the, of the, of the, of the podium there.

So question for, for Julian from Gaza.

You've mentioned about the extensive UXO contamination there.

What we haven't really heard is any real detail about the level of casualties that are occurring as a result of that.

And I wondered if you had any information on that.

And also, it's not clear to me what you have been able to do since October 10th.

What are you able to do now that you weren't able to do before?

How much of the contamination issue have you been able to map and what areas can you, are you still unable to, to access?

And then perhaps for for the Afghan programme, you mentioned that the it's explosive ordinance that is, is creating most of the casualties.

Are these occurring on the old NATO bases?

And if so, are we seeing any NATO commitment to engaging in, in tackling that problem?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

That's a very good question.

So let's first talk about the casualties in Gaza.

When we talk about Gaza and the casualties, we are exceeding about 400 people that's been affected through events such as accidents of UX OS.

The contamination in Gaza is quite actually limited to unexploded ordnance.

We do not see the presence of mines and we do not see the presence of class terminations in that context.

So we're talking about UX OS, conventional as well as improvised that we are locating there.

With that being said, we have currently exceeded 400 casualties, which may sound low compared to some of the other countries, but if you take it as a proportion of the, the, the population, it compares pretty much of Syria since the 8th of December in Syria 2024, we are now standing at about 2500 casualties.

And if you take the, the population and you take the Gazan population of 2.1, it pretty much comes to the same percentage.

And that links back to the message what we say that it ultimately is absolutely indiscriminate and it affects communities wherever it is.

So those are the levels of affected population that is being done.

But further than that, of course, is the, the big massive problem in Gaza is the displacement.

You know, it's everybody's been displaced.

It's, it's, you know, there's so many things access, people cannot access their homes.

The debris management and our colleagues on on UNDP and and WFP are doing wonderful work that we are also enabling and we are supporting in in dealing with these debris, the debris from the buildings, collapsed buildings.

And then and that's something that we are doing joint ventures on.

We're talking about what we've been able to do since the 10th of October when the ceasefire set on as we've been able to access more of the communities more freely.

We are talking about West of the yellow line as well as on east of the yellow line, where different interventions of the humanitarian community continues.

So wherever there's a humanitarian intervention is where UNMAS is supporting as part of our enabling role.

What we've also been doing is we had more broader access to civilian communities where prior to that we were mostly supporting the UN and humanitarian activities on a day-to-day basis.

But now we've had more access to the civilian populations as well and interacting more broadly with them.

So that is one of the biggest things that changed since the 10th of October.

Moving forward is of course, we want to address both the psychological impact that explosive ordinance is having on the communities by addressing some of the, the, the, how can I say some of the, the scrap metals, inert options objects that may resemble explosive ordinance as well as look other things, you know, other explosive ordinance that we can ultimately dispose of and remove from the communities.

So that ultimately allows broader early recovery as well as reconstruction.

But that is something that we haven't been able to do.

For that, we would need some broader range of equipment.

We are talking some deal use items which we are working very closely with, you know, advocating for alongside the rest of the UN for some of the deal use items that we need into Gaza as well as some of the stores.

I mean, mine action is a little bit more complicated due to us having to have access to to items like the energetics like explosives to ultimately sustainably deal with explosive ordinance and to dispose of that.

So in the meantime, as Christel has also mentioned, you know, we are taking small steps, you know, on addressing as much as we can within our current capacity and we continue to advocate.

And in that, we also received a lot of support from the member states participating in the CMCC forum on how to push humanitarian mind action forward.

[Other language spoken]

Just a quick, sorry, quick follow up to that.

You mentioned 400 casualties.

I'm not over what time spent that isn't the the onset of the war, October 2023.

Thank you very much, Julius.

And Nick, the question on NATO engagement, please.

Yeah, thanks Nick, for the question on NATO bases, the short answer to NATO bases is no, that's not why we're seeing explosive ordnance casualties.

But areas that were once used for NATO firing ranges, yes, we are seeing casualties on those areas.

However, I've spoken to NATO on this subject and NATO signed over their firing ranges to the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces when they withdrew and they have the certificates to show that they handed over those areas as free from contamination.

So it is very difficult to point the finger at who's used those areas since and who's used them even since the A and DSF finished obviously in 2021 and we now have the de facto authorities.

It's also worth pointing out that NATO is an organisation, it's not a CCW signatory and it's up to individual nations to clear areas that they use themselves.

So just to point out that of the few donors that we do have in Afghanistan for those 168 teams at the moment, that does include Finland, Denmark, Norway, UK, Germany and echo from the EU who are involved in clearance.

And it's also worth pointing out that New Zealand cleared their ranges up in Bamiyan a few years ago after some casualties occurred up in that that area.

But we do have a significant number area that we mark as contaminated by firing Rangers.

But I expect after survey that would reduce significantly because those areas include the sort of the danger areas outside of the impact of the Rangers themselves.

But we can't attribute a nation I'm afraid or an organisation, sorry.

A quick follow up to that, if I may.

How many of the casualties then that you're in reporting or hearing about are associated with returnees from Iran and Pakistan?

[Other language spoken]

Those numbers broken down.

But what I do know is over 2.2 million returnees have come back to Afghanistan so far this year, about 2/3 from Iran and 1/3 from Pakistan.

Some of those returnees have never lived in the country before.

So they are going back to areas that they may not know at all.

And they certainly do not know about the the explosive ordnance hazards, some of the border crossing points, the main ones there is explosive ordnance risk education provided for people when they come across the border.

But it's also worth pointing out that the state of the people, when they arrive back in Afghanistan, having been evicted from whatever country they're living in, they're not in the most receptive state to take on the details of explosive ordnance risk education.

So we try to follow up in the communities as best we can.

But as I said, funding for the teams is limited.

So thank you very much.

And, you know, today's International Day of Person with Disabilities and we feel, you know, we really want to stand together with person with disabilities, including explosive owner survivors who often have very grave injuries and then, you know, lifelong impairment.

And in that regard, it is very sad to see that the gap between the needs and the resources for victim assistance is, is widening.

You know, we used to, to see to ask our humanitarian partners, can you please help us to provide victim assistance because donors were no longer giving us money to do victim assistance.

But there are now, many of the humanitarian agencies have seen their jet cuts as well.

So there is a, you know, a lot of challenge in terms of access to healthcare, to psychosocial and to sorry, psychological and psychosocial support, to rehabilitation.

This is really a message that we want to convey here.

Yesterday I was talking to the ICRC head of rehabilitation and he was telling me that one in 2024 they had fitted 140,000 person with prosthesis and otosis.

They were saying the problem is in, you know, in the countries where they are so many victims, ICRC is often alone now there's no one else to do this work.

So when we also see ICRC budget being cuts, we are very worried because our programmes refer victims to them.

So, so really there's got to be a lot more investment in, in healthcare, rehabilitation and access to to livelihood for person with disability in general.

[Other language spoken]

I can see stopping here.

But I can see there is a question from Agencia, Alicia Agar from Sorry if you could introduce your your media please.

Hi, yes, it's Alicia Agar from the Spanish News Agency.

Hello Gracias, we can hear you well.

Yes, I have a question for for Mr Vanderwalt.

I was wondering if after the ceasefire your teams found the unexploded ordinance that they expected, I mean in terms of quantities or in terms of the types of the armament is being used or you were surprised that some of it.

Also, I have a question for the programme of Nigeria because you told us that you have found more casualties than the line mine monitor and if you could explain us why is that?

And also I have a general question, I was wondering if you are worried about the the increased investment in defence in if this is going to provoke more and explode this ordinance in the future or Yes.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Alicia, for those questions.

Well, I would like to address it is without talking about the actual numbers of EO that we've encountered.

I think we also have to look at the percentage because as I've mentioned as well that we have an increase of accessibility in, in some of the areas that means that we were able to respond to more tasks, as I said, prior to the conflict or prior to the ceasefire.

[Other language spoken]

We were mostly focusing on the support of the UN and humanitarian efforts in delivering aid and getting aid to the civilian populations.

Whereas since the 10th of October, we've also had more access more freely in, in areas that we previously weren't, didn't have access to.

When we talk about encountering it, it's part that, you know, when we would find sites and we would encounter EO, it would be generally on roads or at sites and we were talking about maybe one EO per site on average, you know, but ever since then, as with the increase in it, you know, it's some some sites that is actually include increase.

So we would have multiple E OS on some of the sites that we previously didn't have any access to.

Sorry for the acronym EO explosive ordinance.

I just use that a little bit more extensively.

So The thing is this, so we have to understand that we are more likely to encounter explosive ordinance as we continue to do our response, as we continue to expand our response and more areas that we gain access to.

But it's also very important to understand the dynamics around the explosive ordinance contamination in the context of Gaza and any of the other context which involves the the using explosive weapons inside populated areas.

And that means that these collapsed buildings is it lends itself to layers of explosive ordinance risk, which is very time consuming because it's not a risk that like what we were doing, for instance, in areas that would be mined where we do the mine clearance and then it will allow reconstruction and early recovery to proceed with buildings that's collapsed and rubble, that rubble needs to be processed systematically just to make sure that it gets scanned and it gets searched for explosive ordinance.

That means that it's a more sustained involvement in the overall early recovery process.

So I hope that answers your question.

So without really looking at the numbers, I think what's important is to see that our capability or not capability, our chances of encountering explosive ordinance has rapidly increased the more we are able to respond.

And that is what we are now seeing over.

Yeah, thank you very much for the question.

In terms of the difference in figures, I intend to talk with the Landmine Monitor about this.

The landmine Monitor for 20/24 reported in the, in the the recent report, 275 casualties for Nigeria.

Our records show it's 672 casualties of which 482 are civilians.

I think there was just a mix up in the terms of reporting, but I will try to correct this when I talk with the Landmine Monitor.

In terms of the military spending or military budget, our figures show that majority of the accidents are happening from IEDs.

It's not just because of more increased aerial attacks or more increased bombardments, but it's because of IEDs when people are freed to move in between areas that they have not been able to move in before and explain IEDs, OK, the the minds of an improvised nature or improvised explosive devices are being used by the non state armed groups, Boko Haram, ISWAP and they're being placed on roads where people are able to move right now between towns that they they've not been able to do this for quite a long time.

But we've we're noting right now an increase in the number or in the percentage of IEDs used by the non state armed groups as opposed to explosive ordnance incidents, you know, as opposed to being injured or killed by picking up or interacting with a UX or unexploded ordnance.

So that's the big difference there.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, there was no mic, but I assume it's it's modern.

Thanks for for the briefing question to Mr Rashid, a similar question as the one that was asked by Nick before on the level of casualties, because you mentioned that one point more than 1.5 million people that have returned and at the same time there is that situation in El Fascia.

So do you have a breakdown of casualties this year with these massive change in the in the conflict?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

First of all, I must say that the sector is on the re being re established.

So our casualty reporting mechanism is not that much strong.

But Despite that we have recorded 130 explosions leaving behind two more than 240 casualties.

You know, more than 100 of them are children.

So this has happened since since the war has started in mid-april 2023.

So, So one thing I would like to make it clear that when there is a large scale unexploded ordnance contamination in populated areas, unfortunately there will be more and more tragedies happening.

And it's, you know, the, the nature of the contamination is no different than, you know, the countries you hear more accidents.

For example, Syria, as far as I remember, in less than a year, they had almost more than 1400 casualties were reported there.

But they have a relatively good reporting system.

I'm, I'm really concerned that there are a lot of accidents are happening that we don't know about.

And as return happens, the return is going to happen in the areas which are contaminated and this you know, there will be a lot of UXO casualties and and there are minefields as well.

By the way.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks very much.

And Nick, I said I was going to come back to you about the risk management approach that you're doing taking in Afghanistan.

Can you please explain?

[Other language spoken]

What my focus was in Afghanistan and I mentioned it's Technical Support to the national authorities, which it is.

However, that 168 teams working in a country with the third highest casualty rate in the world clearly sits an extremely close second.

And how I can get more money to those NGOs to work across Afghanistan to keep people safe.

Traditional donor requests for funding are working against a very complicated international environments at the moment, so they're not necessarily bringing forward more money to Afghanistan.

So what I'm doing now is turning around to all agencies, funds and programmes, all humanitarian and basic human needs actors, and saying where is your risk mitigation for explosive ordnance contamination in Afghanistan, one of the most heavily contaminated countries in the world?

And how are you keeping your workers safe from whatever organisation you're working within when you're Building Schools, roads, rehabilitating areas, the health centres, setting up IDP camps, whatever it is?

Where is your funded risk mitigation for explosive ordnance contamination?

And I held a workshop last week with a number of portfolio partners to explain to them how they might go about mitigating this risk and what sort of money they should be putting to one side out of their projects to do so.

The other approach that we've taken is we've spoken to the Directorate of Mine Action Coordination about this DMAC, and they sit within the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority and MA Andma are pushing for legislation to become part of Afghan law that no project in Afghanistan can be signed off by the Ministry of Economy, as they have to be at the moment.

No project could be signed off without funded explosive ordinance risk mitigation measures in place, and that is working its way through legislation at the moment.

So while this isn't going to radically change the number of teams, what it's hopefully going to do is keep those people working in projects safe with risk education, potentially survey clearance, and possibly quick response teams.

It's going to keep the community safer who are working, who are living within the area of those projects, but also these returnees who come back to the areas that projects are happening and keep them safe as well.

So I'm using this risk strategy, risk mitigation measures and saying, what is it that you are doing to keep your people safe as a way of getting money to the NGOs to keep them working?

Yeah, thank you very much.

And this, this is the advocacy pillar of mine action.

It's, it's not only about, you know, signing the, the human disarmament treaty, which is crucial, but it's also advocacy with national authorities, with different ministries and for us also in the UN, with other UN agencies to make sure that risks related to the explosive ordinance are budgeted for, planned for and mitigated as much as possible.

Because en masse is a very small service.

It's an enabler, but it can really multiply, you know, it's impact by working in partnerships with others.

And we also have a very close partnership with, with many NGOs.

That's that's part of our job as coordination or coordinator to to really try to, to work with everybody so we can address gaps and and take our protection, you know, kind of umbrella further.

OK, I think there is no more questions.

So we can stop here unless, unless there are any last minute or maybe if you want maybe one last comment.

Oh, Nick, Nick, please.

Yeah, One more question for Sadiq, if I may.

On Saddam, you mentioned you've got five teams.

Are they all concentrated in Khartoum?

Is that where your talking about systematic sort of survey and clearance work and how much progress have you been able to make in Khartoum as of now?

The second question I have relates to, to what extent is, I mean the priority in a lot of the negotiations going on between the Quad and and, and the competence is humanitarian access.

But I'm wondering to what extent mind and UXO contamination is, is something that's on the radar of the quad and access for for mitigation of that threat.

How much that is a part of any discussion.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, thank you very much Nick for the question.

The yes, the five clearance teams, all of them are in Kartou because the the need is so big there and they are, they're not doing systematic clearance.

They are responding to critical priorities.

Now, as I said, that one team is working on Khartoum airport.

We have a team to enable other humanitarian actors to move in.

Pretty much every office requires clearance.

So it's, it's unsafe for the organisations to go and occupy their, their offices.

So they have so far cleared 13 offices.

And as I speak now, the team was working on W2 office and that will be followed by ICRC office, which they are.

They definitely desperately need that because ICRC is, you know, always in the front line, you know, so in the the runway, I was really happy to hear that.

And runway is completely cleared from the unexploded ordinance.

So, so at least UXO is not a barrier for reopening the Khartoum airport, which is critical.

And in the the other teams are working on minefields.

The minefields are in the cemetery, in a cemetery where, you know, mourners are blown up, 11 of them, the driver was killed, the other ten were injured.

So that symmetry is just next to the highway, just 10 metres away.

You know, thousands of people are currently passing by.

We have put some marks, but still it's not effective.

So, so they're, they're working on the minefields and this is where we are.

You know, there are many areas that we can't do anything at this stage, many other cities, so we can't do anything.

[Other language spoken]

It's now secure, it's accessible, it's but nobody has gone.

We don't have resources to send teams to do survey and provide response.

So it's really really it's, you know, the programme must be urgently expanded actually ideally before the return happens.

The concern it does if this if the return, the return seems to be unstoppable.

It's happening and people are going and even now in Underman was not not an area that didn't experience conflict.

There are lots of people.

They are you see the signs of an exploded ordinance, but people are walking there.

So that's the situation.

And then access, I would say that in the discussion at the high level, the explosive hazard is coming from time to time.

But in terms of, you know, proper decisions, we don't see any signs of, you know, the impact of those discussions on on the funding management programme in in Sudan.

[Other language spoken]

Oh, sorry, finish by maybe one minute each.

What is your last key message if that you want to convey to the journalist you would like to invite them, you want them to would like to thank one of your the key donors.

[Other language spoken]

Maybe I'll start with with you, Edwin.

Yes, UMAS, Nigeria and UMAS itself would like to thank the donors to the programme.

We have echo from the European Union, Japan, UKUS, we have in kind contribution from the Swiss government and from the Ben W State Government of Nigeria.

And we have a working partnership with both UNICEF and internal internal solutions to durable fund, displacement fund.

Sorry.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, thank you very much for this opportunity.

And I would like to pass on a key message that the problem of exclusive hazard can be addressed.

It must be addressed in Sudan.

It's not very complex.

Most of the areas are easier to address, but obviously there are difficult areas.

But the problem can be managed.

But it's just a matter of, you know, more teams to be on the ground.

And it's a serious problem.

It's a big risk for civilians.

It is a big risk for the aid community.

It is a problem for recovery.

It's a problem for reconstruction.

[Other language spoken]

And then, and then we, we would like to thank our donors.

Canada actually saved the programme from being closed in March and then followed by UK.

We have EU funding, we have some UN organisations are funding the man action sector like WFP.

I think UNDP is in the pipeline and SURF, you know, SHF, these are our donors currently.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much Judith.

Thank you very much.

We'd just like to quickly discuss one aspect or end off with one aspect that on average one must can on an annual basis have up to 20 programmes across the world that we respond to in in very different capacities.

Whether that's part of peacekeeping missions, whether it's part of political missions or whether it's part of stand alone programmes as like some of the the most of the programmes around this table.

With that being said, in, you know, we generally have a mandate to coordinate mine action activities.

We've got a mandate to sometimes act as the de facto mine action centre where a national capacity does not exist.

But an interesting aspect that we also have a responsibility to and that's the provider of last resort.

And that's pretty much pertains to what UNMAS did in Gaza for the entire duration of the of the conflict over the last two years, we've been prison there.

[Other language spoken]

We've been there.

We've been delivering immediate mitigation measures and advice to the UN and humanitarian partners as part of that role to further supplement the the comment on what's changed since the 10th of October is of course our partners, our humanitarian partners that's now able to enter and establish A presence into Gaza.

We've got partners such as the Halo Trust, who we are working with, humanity and inclusion.

I've got a presence and I've got teams on the ground since the 10th of October that is established and they're also looking at how they can expand their prisons.

We've got Mines Advisory Group, Danish Refugee Council and we've got Dan Church 8 all expressing their interest in coming into Gaza and helping towards the addressing this threat.

So I would also just like to to bring this to the attention of of all of you that we have a really a, a combined response.

Not only with the UN, as I've mentioned earlier, UNDP, UNICEF, we're all working together to make sure that we ultimately respond to the threat, but also from our NGO and INGO partners, we're all working together.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks, Crystal.

Just to really emphasise the situation in Afghanistan, I've just had an e-mail in saying that 2 days ago three children were killed in Uruzgan and four children were killed were injured in Harat due to an explosive ordnance accident.

The funding situation is challenging across the globe.

[Other language spoken]

The political situation in Afghanistan is extraordinarily complicated.

Obviously, I get that as well.

So what I would say is thanks to those who continue to support Afghanistan.

Anyone is welcome to visit at any time and I'd encourage other donors to fund if they're able.

Thanks very much.

Thank you very much.

I'm concerned I'll just end with one, one thought, which is the fact that, you know, mine action in my view should be a human rights.

There should be a right to mine action because mine action really is key to enabling enjoyment of human rights by population.

And for instance, you know, many, many children get injured or killed while they're playing.

They have the right to play under the Convention on the Rights of Children.

So we should really, you know, work towards, you know, implementing and upholding those rights of children, but also of, you know, person with disabilities and other groups who are really being excluded and marginalised because of of this problem.

So we're here to, you know, assist, prevent accidents and then assist survivors so they can enjoy their rights.

Thank you very much.

UNMAS Press conference - 03 December 2025