INTRODUCTION

As a result of armed conflict and civil strife over the past two decades, the north and west of Uganda were contaminated by mines/ERW, particularly along the country’s borders with South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since 2007, Danish Demining Group (DDG) has implemented a mine/ERW clearance programme in Uganda in association with the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF – Ugandan military) and the Uganda Police Force (UPF).

On December 10th 2012, Uganda is officially declared free of landmines at a ceremony in the capital of Kampala. The achievement is the result of dedicated work by the National Mine Action Programme in Uganda in collaboration with Danish Demining Group (DDG), the humanitarian mine action unit of the Danish Refugee Council.

Educating children and their mothers in Somalia on how to identify and manage threats from unexploded ordnance explosive devices has become increasingly important as the Al Shabaab movement has changes its strategies towards militia warfare using improvised explosive devices. The mine action unit within the Danish Refugee Council aims to reach 225,000 children during this and next year teaching them how to avoid the danger of explosives.

Danish Demining Group is building safe living environments for local farmers in southern Iraq.

By Mikkel Nedergaard Impact Monitoring Adviser Danish Demining Group

"I might be a hundred years old, I am not completely sure’," Al Amaly says with a smile. She looks a lot younger standing in front of her house with her four children one morning in March. Al Amaly lives with her family on rented land in Al Zubair district outside Basra city in southern Iraq.

1. Afghan context

Afghanistan remains one of the countries most contaminated by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), mainly the result of the 1992–1996 internal armed conflict and the decade‐long war of resistance that followed the Soviet invasion of 1979. The United States‐led coalition’s intervention in late 2001 added considerable quantities of unexploded ordnance (UXO) to the problem, including (cluster) sub‐munitions, and this was followed by further mine use by Non‐State Armed Groups (NSAGs).

The Danish Refugee Council hereby confirms that Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted have been rescued earlier today during an operation in Somalia. American Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted from Denmark are on their way to be reunited with their families.

After being held hostage for three months American citizen Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted from Denmark have today successfully been rescued from their kidnappers in Somalia.

The two aid workers from the Danish Refugee Council’s demining unit, DDG, are both unharmed and at a safe location.

1. DDG Uganda objectives, partners and stakeholders

• Strategic objective:

To build national capacities towards development of an environment free of threat of explosive remnants of war (ERW) and armed violence, where people of Uganda can live safely and have access to land and natural resources, in the process assisting the government in their efforts of becoming compliant with the International Mine Ban Treaty.

During the past few days, Danish and international media have published the names of the two kidnapped staff members of the Danish Refugee Council’s demining unit in Somalia.

The Danish Refugee Council has confirmed the names of the two employees, while at the same time, strongly encouraging media to showing respect, and restraint and to understand the need for confidentiality as investigations are ongoing.

As the security situation continues to deteriorate in Somalia, humanitarian organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to achieve their desired results. Working conditions for these organizations in Somalia are particularly harsh, even when compared to those in other developing countries. Humanitarian-aid workers must accept these risks as a fundamental requirement of their involvement, and donors must be prepared to take more chances in these environments as well.