Whilst Somaliland - contrary to the rest of Somalia - has enjoyed a fragile level of stability since 1997, the region still suffers from post-conflict effects such as widespread private ownership of small arms and explosive remnants of war and a normalisation of violence with clan conflicts and interpersonal disputes being everyday occurrences. Ten years of presence has allowed Danish Demining Group to broaden its interventions from traditional mine clearance to include armed violence reduction initiatives in accordance with the needs of the Somali people.

Danish Demining Group (DDG) has cleared 1.4 million square meters of land and destroyed more than 120,000 landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW) in Somaliland since 1999. But the effort cannot be measured in square meters alone. Humanitarian mine action is a holistic approach that combines several different strategies.

“Ten years in Somaliland has confronted DDG with a complex reality that cannot just be handled by traditional mine-clearance. Finding and destroying landmines and other ERW is only one of the tasks at hand in order to improve safety for the Somali people. While the majority of minefields have now been cleared there is for example still a problem with people keeping private stockpiles of ERW. Getting rid of such stockpiles requires an entirely different approach with more extensive advocacy and education. Furthermore, an assessment done by DDG in 2007 showed an alarming problem with uncontrolled small arms which far too often causes accidents and exacerbates the seriousness of disagreements” says Karina Lynge, Programme Manager for DDG in Somaliland.

In order to ensure maximum impact for its target communities, DDG refocused and broadened its efforts in Somaliland by launching a Community Safety Programme in 2008. The programme seeks to reduce armed violence and build a foundation for sustainable peace by addressing the problem of small arms and ERW while also emphasising capacity building of local communities in conflict management, cooperation with security providers and general safety enhancement.

“The Community Safety Programme is largely about changing behaviour and attitudes towards ERW and small arms. We respect the local culture and we therefore do not seek to disarm people. Instead we try to foster a culture of responsibility and peaceful settlement of disagreements. The programme therefore consists of a lot of advocacy and educational activities as well as minor clearance operations, and we interact very closely with the population in our target areas to ensure that the programme activities are tailored to their specific needs” says Karina Lynge.

Since the launch of the programme in 2008, DDG has destroyed more than 350 ERW from private stockpiles, delivered firearms safety and mine risk education to more than 7000 people, trained more than 350 people in conflict management and provided more than 600 firearm owners with safe storage devices for their weapons - protecting their children and other dependants from accidents. In addition to this the population in DDG’s seven target areas have actively engaged in safety enhancing activities and have begun providing education to fellow community members, improving their collaboration with police etc.

Related News:

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 Through the lens of hope  - 21-10-09 09:00

Links:

www.danishdemininggroup.dk

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