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NEWS ROUNDUP November 2014

Nov2014News

20 November, 2014
Gold seekers killed in North Darfur explosion


Two gold seekers were killed at Mashru Abuzaid in North Darfur on Wednesday, when an explosive device, supposedly unexploded ordnance remaining from conflict in the area, detonated as they were digging.
Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that Abdul Nabi Musa Issa and Suleiman Yagoub Adam were searching for gold using an electronic detector. At about 2 pm, the gold detector’s alarm sounded and they began to dig. You can read more on the aftermath of South Sudan’s civil war at Radio Dabanga.

20 November, 2014
Man loses left leg after UXO blast in province


A man was seriously injured in Battambang province yesterday when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine, causing it to explode, officials told the Post.
Ly Buoy, Samlot district police chief, said that 31-year-old Chhorn Sono was collecting wood in a forest in Chork Rokar village when the mine exploded early yesterday morning.
“He was not a military man, but he was hired to collect wooden planks for renovating a border outpost,” he said. The rest of the story is at The Phnom Penh Post.

18 November, 2014
MAG’s female demining group clears Quang Tri with care


Eight women make up the core of an UXO (unexploded ordnance) detection team funded by the British Mines Advisory Group (MAG)’s mission in Quang Tri Province.
The region suffered the worst of American bombing during the peak of the Vietnam War and was a principle battleground during the 1968 Tet Offensive. Read the rest and watch a video of the group at Thanh Nien News.

18 November, 2014
The Bomb in a Drawer


For quite sometime, it was just there, inside a drawer of an office table in a village hall in a town in Maguindanao. It is not the usual office stationery you keep on your drawer, it is an unexploded ordnance (UXO), 60mm mortar found by one of the village officials. He kept it in his drawer, locked. For whatever reason, he waited for the right time to turn it over.
Read the rest at Minda News from the Philippines.

17 November, 2014
Deer hunters asked to watch out for explosives at Fort McCoy


Deer hunters, be careful when walking about the Fort McCoy hunting grounds because you might come upon unexploded shells.
Officials in Wisconsin said on Monday the hundreds of hunters expected to be on the grounds during the nine-day gun deer season Nov. 22 to 30 could encounter munitions that didn’t explode during live-fire training or testing. Read more at Madison.com.

17 November, 2014
Mine found buried near Sihanoukville road


Officials are requesting the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) to destroy an anti-tank mine unearthed last week next to a Sihanoukville town street.
A group of water company workers found the mine Thursday while digging for a water pipeline connection in Commune 4, said Ros Eng Hong, the commune’s deputy police chief.
“There are many ordnance in the area, especially 150-millimetre shell UXO. They’re piled up under the trees.”
You can read the rest at The Phnom Penh Post.

11 November, 2014
Unexploded ordnance a major concern in Tinian harbor project


A major concern relating to the development of the Tinian Harbor is the possible presence of unexploded ordnance.
In a recent meeting of stakeholders called by the CNMI CIP Office, Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality Manager Ray Masga raised the concern with respect to unexploded ordnance the CNMI will face if it undertakes a dredging project. More on the threat of UXO at the US nuclear testing area from Marianas Variety.

10 November, 2014
New UXO clearance project kicks off in Georgia


In August 2008, two of the eight tunnels of the Military Ammunition Depot in Skra, near Gori, exploded, throwing out some 500 tons of unexploded munitions and other debris, sealing off the tunnel entrance and presenting a severe safety and proliferation threat.
“The project aims to clear the debris and access the tunnels to remove any remaining live munitions or the debris. This will make the area safe for the local population and usable for the local authority” said David Towndrow, the NATO Support Agency Project Officer. NATO has more on the project to clear UXO in Georgia.

8 November, 2014
The Purple Buddha Project is helping artisans in war-torn Cambodia heal their hearts and feed their families.


Cambodia and neighboring Laos are two of the most-bombed countries in the world. And bombings during times of conflict are just the start. Both countries are plagued with unexploded ordnances (UXOs), a fancy term for bombs and mines that never went off. As a result, these countries also have the highest numbers of amputees in the world. The Purple Buddha Project is empowering groups of artisans to tackle the UXO problem with crafts. More on the project here.

7 November, 2014
ANAMA: 80 UXOs, 11 antipersonnel and 15 antitank mines found and disarmed in October


4,173,583 sq m area was inspected and cleared of mines and unexploded ordinances (UXO) by Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) in October, 2014.
ANAMA told APA that 80 UXOs, 11 antipersonnel and 15 antitank mines were found and disarmed. Read the rest of the dispatch from Azerbaijan here.

3 November, 2014
Cambodian UXO injuries, deaths up in ’14


Landmine casualties more than doubled in the first eight months of this year compared to the same period in 2013, according to officials, who are pointing to the wider use of industrial agricultural equipment – such as tractors – as the reason for the uptick in explosions.
From January to August, 129 landmine casualties – which include injuries and deaths – were documented, a 55 per cent increase from the 83 recorded in the same period last year, says the most recent monthly report by the Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAA). Read the rest at The Phnom Penh Post.

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NEWS ROUNDUP October 2014

Oct2014News

22 October, 2014
Laos on track for UXO development goal target


This year Laos may reach its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets to reduce the impact of unexploded ordnance but the human cost remains high, local press reported Wednesday.
According to Director of the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) Phoukhieo Chanthasomboun, the Laos-specific Millennium Development Goal 9 (MDG) has set a target of less than 75 unexploded ordnance (UXO) casualties per year.
“For the first 10 months of this year, the UXO accident rate is in line with the MDG set target but the explosive devices are still blowing up and many adults and children are being killed and injured each month,” Phoukhieo said. More on the story from Xinhua at GlobalPost.

20 October, 2014
ASEAN to strengthen assistance for Lao victims of UXO


Twenty-four officials from the line agencies in charge of social affairs, assistance to victims, and de-mining of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam participated in the workshop. They exchanged ideas and discussed national policies and the best practices to ultimately benefit victims of UXOs and improve their lives, as well as prevent new victims in the future. More from Thai PBS.

16 October, 2014
Artillery shell found in Vietnam pre-school


An Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team from Project RENEW safely removed an artillery shell from a kindergarten in the north-central province of Quang Tri.
Nguyen Thi Hong, the headmistress of the Cam Thanh ward nursery in Cam Lo district called RENEW right after she found the 100-millimeter shell on school grounds. The rest of the short story is at Thanh Nien News.

15 October, 2014
The Families At Risk From Iraq’s Legacy Of Conflict – report & photo gallery


The Kurdish region of northern Iraq is now hosting more than 800,000 displaced Iraqis, including Yazidi, Christian, Shabak, Kakai, Armenian and Turkmen minorities.
The region has suffered from numerous conflicts over many decades and as a result is highly contaminated by the explosive remnants of war: unexploded ordnance (UXO) and landmines. MAG has been working in the region since 1992, clearing the areas most needed by communities to develop and live in safety.
Read more and see the photos at MAG’s website.

14 October, 2014
Recycling in Sudan: Turning bombs into agricultural tools


For over three years, the Sudan government has been leading an intense bombing campaign in South Kordofan. In an area cut off from the rest of the world, local villagers are now recycling the shells to help them grow crops.
Since June 2011, the Sudanese army and rebels from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement of the North (SPLM-N) have been fighting over control of this oil-rich region, which borders South Sudan. In the Nuba Mountains, the army has been blighting the lives of local villagers with a blanket bombing campaign, resulting in dozens of civilian deaths.
With supplies scarce, the locals have used their ingenuity. Read the rest of this remarkable story at France 24.

5 October, 2014
War-era bunker full of unexploded ordnances found in central Vietnam


Construction workers detected a bunker containing a huge amount of war-era unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the north-central province of Quang Tri.
Workers of the Truong Son Construction Corporation under the Ministry of Defense were digging up the soil to clear the site for construction of the Lao Bao International Border Gate in the eponymous town when they detected the bunker.
Inside the bunker they found dozens of artillery shells, mortar shells, hundreds of cluster bombs and other ordnance.
Major Vo Cong Nam, chief supervisor at the construction site, said all the UXOs were produced and left by the US army during the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. More on the story at Thanh Nien News.

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NEWS ROUNDUP August 2014

Aug2014News

August 29, 2014
Four children die in explosions

The coordinator of the Sirba camps for displaced people told Radio Dabanga from Manjura in Jebel Moon that Adam Nimeiri Haj (13 years), Abdo Mohamed (12 years), and Haitham Ishag Adam (11 years) were herding goats in the area on Wednesday. They found an unexploded ordnance (UXO), which detonated as they started playing with it, the coordinator explained. They were killed on the spot.
An explosion of a remnant of war on Tuesday killed one child and seriously wounded another in Drankola in Sirba locality. The camp coordinator explained that the incident occurred when the two children were letting their camels graze in the area. “The injured child was transferred to El Geneina hospital for treatment.”
Radio Dabanga has the rest of the story.

August 27, 2014
UXO Casualties Rising

The Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) has recorded a drastic increase in the number of deaths and injuries due to unexploded ordnance and landmines this year compared with 2013, the organisation has said.
Heng Ratana, director-general of CMAC, said yesterday that there had been 101 casualties in the first six months of 2014, compared with about 110 cases in the whole of last year. Read the rest of the story at The Phnom Penh Post.

August 25, 2014
Ho Chi Minh City sappers collect war-era bomb, shell

Sappers on Monday collected a Vietnam War 400 lb bomb and an artillery shell which were found last week in District 9, Ho Chi Minh City.
The bomb was found last Monday when local people were dredging the Mon canal. It measured 1.5 meter in length and 0.4 meters in diameter.
The 105 mm shell, weighing 50 kg, was found in a near by paddy field. See more at Thanh Nien News.

August 22, 2014
Unexploded Israeli ordnance creates more danger for Gazans

The explosion of a device in northern Gaza, while Palestinian experts were attempting to disable it on Aug. 13, led to the death of six individuals, including journalists, one of whom was an Italian reporter working for the Associated Press in the Gaza Strip.
Medhat al-Batash, a technical department official for the explosives engineering unit in Gaza, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Interior, said that the UXOs of the current war are more dangerous than in any previous war.Read more here.

August 16, 2014
Mission imprecision: the unexploded ordnance war

In September of 2006, Haaretz quoted the head of an Israeli Army rocket unit on his military’s performance during the recent 34-day war on Lebanon: “What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs.”
As the article explains, the United Nations estimated at the time that approximately 40 percent of cluster rounds fired by Israel had failed to explode. This is why, despite intensive and ongoing cleanup efforts by Lebanese and international organisations, we still continue to see headlines like: “18-year-old Lebanese killed by Israeli cluster bomb.”
The rest of the story is at Mideast Eye.

August 15, 2014
Couple fear for their lives as diggers move onto Killingworth field which may harbour unexploded bombs

A couple say they were left fearing for their lives after a digger began working in a field next door which could contain dozens of unexploded bombs.
Steve and Joanne Pattison, who live on the eastern edge of Killingworth Village, raised the alarm with police and North Tyneside District Council as they watched consultants for Bellway Homes carry out preliminary work at the Killingworth Stores site
But the house builder, which has applied for permission to construct 127 homes on the land, said the area was low risk and their consultant was carrying out minor channelling work to prove it.
ChronicleLive (UK) has more.

August 14, 2014
UXO blast kills two in central Vietnam

Two men were killed while trying to extract explosives from an unidentified item of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the central province of Phu Yen on Wednesday.
The incident happened at around 9 a.m. when Vo Thang, 41, and Nguyen Tan An, 25, of Son Hoa District used a saw to cut the ordnance.
Local residents said they heard an explosion near a house of a park ranger in Son Hoi Hamlet which is located near the Da Chat Forest. Rushing to the site, they found the body parts of the duo.
The rest of the story is at Thanh Nien News.

August 14, 2014
In Pictures: Funeral of Gazan translator killed by Israeli UXO

Relatives and friends mourn over the body of Ali Shehada Abu Afash, a translator working with The Associated Press, during his funeral in Gaza City on 13 August.
Afash was killed in an ordnance explosion in the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, together with Associated Press video-journalist Simone Camilli and three members of the Gaza police. Police said four other people were seriously injured, including AP photographer Hatem Moussa. See the photos at Mideast Eye.

August 13, 2014
Tragic deaths in Gaza are a reminder of a world full of unexploded bombs

An Italian videojournalist with the Associated Press, his interpreter and four Palestinians were killed in a string of explosions at an ordnance dump in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. As The Washington Post’s William Booth reports, Simone Camilli and Ali Shehda Abu Afash were filming a crew of Gazan police tasked with defusing the collected munitions. The assignment, for all involved, took a deadly, tragic turn.
Unexploded ordnance, the remnants of cluster bombs and fizzled rockets, have long been a danger in the Gaza Strip, which has endured repeated offensives by Israel over the past half decade. Six months after the end of Israel’s 2008-9 Operation Cast Lead, the United Nations reported that at least 12 civilians, including six children, had been killed during incidents related to unexploded ordnance, which the U.N. labels “UXO.”
The Washington Post has the rest of the story.

August 6, 2014
UXO Tour brings foreigners face to face with bombing devastation in Quang Tri

A group of backpackers panned their cameras across a remote commune in Quang Tri Province, clicking away, then turned to do the same to a pile of sandbags placed over a soon-to-be detonated piece of war-era ordnance.
Soon the group was whisked away to watch the climactic explosion set off by a foreign-funded de-mining team.
The Quang Tri UXO Tour has run for two years now as a partnership between the Norwegian-funded project RENEW and the Vietnam Backpackers Hostels, which now operates three hostels in Hanoi and Hue. Read the rest at Thanh Nien News.

August 3, 2014
World War One Shells Still Deadly and Dangerous

Artillery shells fired off in World War One and Two are still deadly. Detonation experts say shells from World War One along the French countryside could still explode — even one hundred years later.
As the Anniversary of the start of World War One is being remembered, there is a legacy from the war that lingers on even now.
Bomb clearance specialist Guy Momper states, “If you have a million shells falling — besides all those that fell after — the soil’s upheaval necessarily buried a large part of those which did not explode.” See more at the Net News Ledger.

August 1, 2014
Unexploded ordnance: Don’t touch it, report it

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. – The 20th CBRNE Command’s senior enlisted leader has seen it: an unpinned hand grenade in a garage, practice bombs in a basement and an armed landmine on a mantle.
Command Sgt. Maj. Harold E. Dunn IV from 20th CBRNE Command (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives) said unexploded ordnance (UXO) is not only found on military proving grounds, training ranges and battlefields but also in residential, commercial and recreational areas.
Dunn said UXO can be found just about anywhere.
Read more at DVIDS.

August 1, 2014
Laos’ hard work reduces number of UXO victims

Great efforts made by the Lao Government together with international support have helped reduced the number of victims of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the country to just 56 last year from the previous 300 each year.
The positive result was reported at a ceremony in Vientiane on August 1 to mark the 4th anniversary of the Convention on Cluster Munitions taking effect.
Chairman of the Lao National Regulatory Authority for UXO/Mine Action Sector and Minister to the Government Office Bounheuang Douangphachanh also revealed that during 10 months from September 2013 to June this year, relevant forces in the country removed more than 72,000 items of UXO, including nearly 44,000 cluster bombs. More to read at talkvietnam.com.