FROM THE FIELD: ‘Perseverance, painstaking patience’ of world’s deminers

UNMAS/Martine Perret

An UNMAS community liaison officer, talks to a woman in South Sudan about the danger of mines.

FROM THE FIELD: ‘Perseverance, painstaking patience’ of world’s deminers

2 April 2021 Peace and Security

The perseverance, painstaking patience, concentration and stamina of the men and women who clear land mines and other explosive remnants of war around the world is being recognized in a new photo exhibition launched by the UN.

In South Sudan, UNMAS continues to remove mines and other hazardous explosive material following conflict there. **UNMAS/Martine Perret**

Millions of people have benefitted from the work of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) which was established in 1997. It currently has 19 mine-clearing operations in countries which have experienced war and instability.

In 2020 in South Sudan alone, UNMAS found and destroyed some 35,000 deadly devices. It costs just $1 to make a landmine but around $1,000 to safely remove it from the land.

Ahead of International Mine Awareness Day which is marked annually on 4 April, see photos and illustrations of deminers at work here.

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News Tracker: Past Stories on This Issue

Through the 2016 peace agreement between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Colombian mine action sector has expanded significantly providing new employment opportunities for both men and women.

Removing deadly mines means ‘new horizons and hope’, clears a path to SDGs, says UN chief

4 April 2019

Peace and Security

The path towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development must be “clear of landmines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices (IEDs)”, the United Nations Secretary-General said on Thursday, International Mine Awareness Day.

A member of the Guinean Search and Detect team of UN peacekeepers surveys a road in Kidal in the the far north of Mali in October 2018.

FROM THE FIELD: Guinean peacekeepers walk a fine line in Mali

31 October 2018

Peace and Security

A team of Guinean peacekeepers deployed to the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, (MINUSMA) is playing a key role in removing explosives from areas in which the mission is operating.