[Ngo-lwg] South Sudan child scrap metal diggers blown up in Juba

Chuck Searcy chuckusvn at gmail.com
Fri Oct 18 08:55:28 ICT 2013


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24563786

 17 October 2013 Last updated at 13:22 GMT  South Sudan child scrap metal
diggers blown up in Juba
[image: Stephen Gatwech who lost his leg after stepping on a mine in Unity
State]
* Explosives kill and maim people across South Sudan every year** *
* *

Five children have been killed by an old mortar shell as they dug for scrap
metal in South Sudan's capital, Juba.

The five were looking for metal in an old army barracks, a military
spokesman told the BBC.

The BBC's James Copnall says unexploded ordnance and mines remain a big
problem in South Sudan, following decades of civil war.

There are clear-up operations under way in several areas of South Sudan,
but such explosions kill people every year.

The children, aged 10-14, were killed in a former barracks in Juba's Souk
Sita district, army spokesman Col Philip Aguer said.

He said that a Ugandan man who was with them, presumably to buy the scrap
metal, was wounded.

South Sudan gained independence in 2011 after a long conflict with the
north but it remains one of the world's least developed countries.

In addition to the explosives left over from the war, rebels have been
accused of laying new mines, particularly in Unity state near the border
with Sudan, our correspondent reports.

This has at times made travel around the area dangerous, he adds.


 *======================================
CHUCK SEARCY
International Advisor, Project RENEW
Vice President, Veterans for Peace Chapter 160 (Hoa Binh)
**71 Tran Quoc Toan, Hanoi, Viet Nam
Tel:          +844 6685 2622 **
**Mobile:    +849 0342 **0769
**Skype:      chucksearcy
Email:       chuckusvn at gmail.com
Web:         www.landmines.org.vn
**======================================*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://ngocentre.org.vn/pipermail/ngo-lwg/attachments/20131018/e40b0526/attachment-0024.html 


More information about the Ngo-lwg mailing list