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.
30 years of war and conflict has left villages north of the Bagram air-strip contaminated with landmines and explosive remnants of war. Since March 2011 the Danish Demining Group have cleared almost 60.000 square-meters of land in order to give the local communities the chance of a new beginning.
Interviews conducted on the 14th of March 2011 by: Mahmmad Atef Central area field officer, Bagram district DDG Afghanistan. Story told by: Mahmmad Tahir, Operation Officer, HQ Kabul DDG, Afghanistan.
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).
DDG’s objectives, partners and stakeholders in the Area of Operation DDG has been working in Somalia since 2009.
Strategic Objectives:
To reduce the threat caused by landmines and ERW in Puntland, Galmudug and SC Somalia with an efficient, effective and flexible DDG mine action capacity.
To enhance human security and community safety in Puntland, Galmudug and SC Somalia through the implementation of armed violence reduction (AVR) initiatives.
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.
Due to a vigorous government campaign and with international assistance to return IDPs as quickly as possible, the camps that were housing as many as 300,000 IDP are now closing down. However, many of the returnees are still unable to return to their homes due to the threat of mine and UXO contamination. Instead, many are now hosted by family or in social institutions in their home area.
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.
Today, three staff members from the Danish Refugee Council were kidnapped by Somalian gunmen in the northern Somalia.
At 3:00 p.m. the three staff members from the Danish Refugee Council’s demining unit, Danish Demining Group, were kidnapped in northern Somalia, Galkayo. One is a Somali man, two are international staff members, an American woman and a Danish man.
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.
International efforts in the so-called fragile states are changing. From being characterised by a line of single components, the debate is now focused on joined intervention and an integrated approach to create safety and development. For the Danish Demining Group and the Danish Refugee Council, stabilisation begins with creating safety in the villages of Somalia.
By Klaus Ljoerring Pedersen Regional director, Danish Demining Group (DDG), Horn of Africa
The past few years have witnessed a significant
evolution in DDG?s
policies and programming practices with the expansion of traditional humanitarian
mine action activities into broader armed violence reduction initiatives.
These changes necessitated the development of an Armed Violence Reduction
(AVR) framework.
Furthermore, in 2008 the Danish Refugee
Council (DRC) issued a revised programme handbook with a programming, reporting
and planning framework for DRC?s
assistance. This AVR framework is intended to function as an addition to
Category: Africa, DDG, Press releases,
East and Central Africa
After years of continued work to clear
Uganda for landmines, the Central-African nation is close to the aim of
being declared mine free. However, renewed support is needed for Uganda
to be able to live up to the international Mine Ban Treaty.
Mid-2012 is when Uganda is committed
to declaring the Central-African nation mine free. But there is still a
way to go before Uganda has fulfilled its commitment to the Ottawa Treaty,
and continued support is needed to being able to reach the desired status
Between August 2008 and August 2009,
data was collected and analysed across Somaliland in order to improve understanding
of community safety and small arms and light weapons in Somaliland. Data
has been collected from 157 communities in 32 districts and the data set
includes a total of 2846 household questionnaires and 281 focus group and
key informant interviews with key players in the field of community safety,
such as the police, civil society organisations, the UN and traditional
and religious leaders. The publication is a joint effort by DDG and the
This paper was written to evaluate a
community safety programme implemented by the Danish Demining Group (DDG)
in Somaliland between May 2008 and February 2010. The findings focus on
four main areas; meeting the requirements for HAP certification, monitoring
the progress towards meeting output targets, measuring the impact activities
have had overall in the seven target communities in the districts of Daami
and Sheikh, and reflecting over lessons learned in order to improve future
programming.
The purpose of this paper is to interpret
the findings from the Danish Demining Group (DDG) & the Small Arms
Survey (SAS) (2009): "Community Safety & Small Arms in Somaliland"
and to recommend interventions to address the problems identified.1 Since
DDG has indications that the findings are largely true for Puntland and
South Central Somalia as well, the recommendations are believed to also
be applicable for these areas.2
When the tidal wave hit the shores of Sri
Lanka on the 26th of December a number of mines where swept away, but the
amount of misplaced mines are fortunately minimal. Danish Demining Group,
DDG have in the first week after the catastrophe been concentrating on
assisting the local population with humanitarian aid.
DDG have been clearing mines and unexploded
ammunition within Sri Lanka since 2003, therefore the organization was
already present, when Tsunami hit the island, and they were able to summon
personnel from their Christmas holidays and reorganize the tasks quickly.
Due to the latest developments in Iraq,
DDG withdrew its international staff from Iraq on Thursday April 8th.
The staff is now sent to Amman, Jordan
where a new validation of the situation will take place on Friday April
16th.
The situation in Basrah is calm after
the weekend, why the precautions taken is due to the situation developing
South of Bagdad. If the scenario is not moving to our area of operation
we will be operating in Iraq from next week.
After a short evacuation from Iraq in September,
Danish Demining Group is back in operation and continues as planned in
the Basra Area.
Without the UN in the area Danish Demining
Group would not be able to secure the evacuation of the Afghan employees.
We have therefore decided to recruit 16 Iraqis. After ending their training
the Iraqis will join the demining Danish Demining Group is conducting in
Basra.
Our Afghan deminers have returned to
Afghanistan to continue their work there.
