What do you do when you want to make a survey of the extent of dangerous remnants of war in an area that is inaccessible to international NGO’s? You fly out people from the area and train them to do the job.
Suicide bombs, roadside bombs and car bombs are unfortunately an everyday event in Mali’s Kidal region. The security situation is so bad that organisations like DanChurchAid cannot work in the region.
At the same time, remnants of war from the hostilities that started in early 2012 are dangerous for both civilians and peacekeeping soldiers. Grenades, landmines and other explosive remnants of war are laying spread all over Kidal and it is that sort of thing that DanChurchAid’s umanitarian mine action program works on identifying and clearing many places; but it isn’t possible just yet in Kidal.
“In practice, no one controls the area, so there is de facto no access for operations like ours,” says Logistics & Programme Support Officer Roland Carew from DanChurchAid’s humanitarian mine action program in Mali.
Despite this, the UN’s mine action service, UNMAS, wants to get an overview of where the dangerous war remnants are located in Kidal, and how much there is. It would save months and protect human lives once a real humanitarian mine action effort can start. So the UN has, in cooperation with DanChurchAid, worked out an alternative solution.
A discrete way of working
As we can’t send personnel from DanChurchAid into the affected areas in Kidal region we have, with support from the NCA (Norwegian Church Aid), chosen instead to fly selected local people out to train them to do the work. Then they are sent back and report back to DanChurchAid.
The UN sees a great advantage in this solution rather than letting the UN itself or private companies do the same job.
“It is a discrete way of working that doesn’t require an escort of armoured vehicles and heavy weapons,” says Marc Vaillant, Programme Officer of UNMAS in Mali.
To start with, DanChurchAid selected, in cooperation with local partner organisations, nine volunteers from Kidal, who were flown out of the area. They were taught how to collect information and make surveys in order to find out where the dangerous areas are that later have to be cleared of explosives.
“When the day comes that we get a green light for actual clearance, we won’t have to waste time but can start clearing right away,” says Marc Vaillant.
That way, the many people who fled can go home faster and more safely.
Knowledge out and knowledge in
The volunteers are also trained to pass their knowledge on risk education on, so children and grownups, that are still in the areas, can learn which objects are dangerous so they have to stay away from them.
The project is thus both about getting some information out of the area and also getting some special knowledge in to it.
© Google Maps Kidal province is located in the northeastern part of Mali and is mostly desert Marc Vaillant views the project with great optimism and looks forward to seeing the results of the experiment.
“I think this community based approach is the right solution,” he says.
The best thing would be if the dangerous ammunition could be removed here and now, but as that isn’t possible, we have to be creative and find the next best solution. This project is an example of that.
“Kidal is a very special region that it is hard to gain control of. But we are all anxious to get results, so that is why we get together with among others DanChurchAid around the table to get things like this done,” says Marc Vaillant from UNMAS.
Good results already
The first results of the work have already begun to arrive. So far, the nine volunteers have identified 14 areas that, it has been confirmed, are contaminated with explosive remnants of war, and they have found 12 areas where there is a suspicion of contamination.
The initial results have convinced Roland Carew from DanChurchAid that the project has a future. At the same time, he is encouraged by the eagerness of the volunteers.
DCA is aware that the full impact of this project may not be measured at this stage but strongly believe that by training locals will make a last impact in some of the most affected and remote areas of Kidal where access is extremely limited.
“We could see that the volunteers enjoyed the training very much, and now the results show us that they can see the need, and that it gives them hope,” he says.
The conflict in Mali
In January 2012 an armed conflict broke out in northern Mali.
Rebels took over control of northern Mali by April 2012 and declared the secession the new state of Azawad.
In response to Islamist territorial gains, the French military launched an operation in January 2013, and a month later, Malian and French forces recaptured most of the north of Mali.
In a presidential election conducted in July and August of 2013, Ibrahim Boubacar was elected president.
Unrest remains in the northern part of the country, especially in Kidal province. In December 2013 the town of Kidal was hit by a car bomb blast that killed two United Nations peacekeepers.
