"UNITED NATIONS MINE ACTION SERVICE - UNMAS"

Clearance of mines in Ukraine is urgent to put the country’s economy back on track and enable to grow food for the rest of the world, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said. UNTV CH

Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ukraine, Saviano Abreu, briefed reporters on the humanitarian impact of the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam. UNTV CH

At a youth-focused event that marked the International Mine Awareness Day in South Sudan’s capital Juba, Jurkuch Barach Jurkuch, Chairperson of South Sudan’s National Mine Action Authority (NMAA) expressed his regrets about the use of landmines in the country during decades of conflict. UNMISS

Cambodian Ambassador Sophea Eat, whose country is among the most heavily contaminated by landmine, and explosive remnants of war, told reporters, “Mine action is not only a humanitarian issue, but it is also a precondition for sustainable development that leaves no one behind.” UNIFEED

Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) cleared 25 anti-personnel mines from Pigi County in South Sudan, making the area safe to inhabit. UNMISS

While great progress has been made to remove all known landmines and other explosive remnants of war in South Sudan, some of the country’s communities are still endangered by their presence. Ilene Cohn, Acting Director of the United Nations Mine Action Service, UNMAS, recently visited one of them, Gondokoro near the capital Juba, as part of her assessment of mine action activities in the youngest nation of the world. UNMISS

In South Sudan’s Upper Nile and the extreme north of Jonglei states, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) carried out a mine risk awareness session to educate vulnerable communities who are living under the threat of anti-personnel mines. UNMISS

Briefing by UNMAS Acting Director Ilene Cohn, Special Envoy for universalization of the anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention and Lord Chamberlain of the Royal Hashemite Court Prince Mired of Jordan, Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations Guillermo Fernández de Soto, Deputy Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations David Hauri, Director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines Hector Guerra, and IED survivor/photographer Giles Duley.