Darfur: UN-African mission uses puppets to spread message about ordnance risks

The joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID) is using puppets to raise awareness among local schoolchildren about the dangers of interacting with unexploded ordnance (UXO).

In a two-day workshop that concluded today, staff with UNAMID’s ordnance disposal office taught puppetry skills to the local non-governmental organization (NGO) Friends of Peace and Development.

NGO staff will then deliver messages about UXO awareness to pupils in a child-friendly way, UNAMID reported in an update.

The workshop, held in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, culminated in a supervised class at a local school run by staff from the NGO.

UNAMID has been running awareness projects about UXO since 2008, but the latest workshop follows a series of recent accidents involving children playing with ordnance.

In the worst such incident, three children were killed and five others were injured after playing with UXO in Al Tawisha on 31 August.

UXO remains a serious problem in Darfur, with many areas of the remote region littered with ordnance as a result of the protracted conflict between rebels, Government forces and allied militiamen.