The largest country in Africa is littered with mines and other remnants of conflict as a result of the 21-year civil war that ended in 2005 between the Government of Sudan and armed groups in the south, mainly the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army.
Mines, unexploded ordnance (UXO), and caches of munitions and weapons continue to kill and maim innocent bystanders, deny access to land and basic resources, and restrict relief and peace-monitoring efforts in the region. An estimated 4.8 million people are internally displaced within the country, having fled their homes as a result of conflict. With relative peace in the majority of the country since 2005, increasing numbers of these people – and the hundreds of thousands of refugees in neighbouring countries – are returning to their ancestral homelands, moving through contaminated areas as they do so.
Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is a UK NGO working in Sudan and other current and former conflict zones around the world to reduce the threat of death and injury from remnants of conflict, such as landmines. MAG educates the people living, working and traveling through contaminated areas to minimize the risks of them, their friends and families being killed or maimed. MAG runs several projects in different parts of Sudan focused on preventing injuries and deaths from mines as well as providing relief assistance to beneficiaries.
Most Sudanese live off subsistence farming and survive at or below the poverty line. For the populations displaced or marginalized by the presence of mines, relief assistance in the form of traditional food aid, affordable health care, shelter and water and sanitation facilities are as important as the preventative measures that MAG teaches. GlobalMedic, in partnership with MAG, saw the need to provide assistance to the people of South Sudan who are most affected by the remnants of the 21-year civil war.
GlobalMedic assessed the situation and felt that an effective response was to donate the 1008 Rainfresh water purification units to MAG for distribution, as MAG had the capacity and resources necessary to distribute the units and train households on effective usage of them. GlobalMedic also trained MAG staff on the proper methods for distribution and use of the Rainfresh units. The water filtration units were distributed to beneficiaries in Juba and surrounding areas where MAG has a presence. These units provided beneficiaries with access to clean water in culturally appropriate containers for 1 year.
