Somalia experiences a high level of armed violence due to the prevalence of small arms and explosive remnants of war. This is why the mine action unit of the Danish Refugee Council is working to reduce the number and impact of weapons in Somalia. Wednesday the 12th the results will be presented at a conference in Geneva.

The mine action unit of the Danish Refugee Council, Danish Demining Group, DDG has since the beginning of 2009 worked on enhancing safety in Somalia by reducing armed violence. This has been possible by collecting and destroying small arms and explosive remnants of war, conducting conflict management education and providing firearm safety education.

”We focus on people of the communities who are affected. They are include in everything we do – and taking part in the workshops planning what and how we are to go about the task of reducing armed violence in their communities. This why we ensure a sustainable impact,” says Rasmus Stuhr Jakobsen, head of the mine action unit of DRC, DDG.

The work has had immediate impact. 75 % of the beneficiaries in the affected communities say the programme has reduced conflict in their communities. There has been a 70 % proportional decrease in fear of small arms and accidents involving explosives. And 64 % more of the people affected have today no security concerns after the intervention.

”Even minor conflicts over resources - land, farms or water – has been escalating due to the excessive amount of small arms and explosive remnants of war in Somalia. Our safety approach including education, conflict management, safe storage devices and a reduction of the number of weapons have therefore had an immediate and positive effect,” says Rasmus Stuhr Jakobsen.

The mine action unit, DDG, is to present the current results at the upcoming conference in Geneva on Wednesday May 12th.

Since the mine action unit, DDG, started worked in Somalia in 1999 the unit has cleared 1,4 million square meters of land, and removed more than 11,000 landmines and 124,000 unexploded ordnances and delivered mine risk education to more than 34,000 persons.

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Links:

www.danishdemininggroup.dk

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