UNMAS in 2024: Protecting lives building peace


UNMAS delivers mandates assigned by the United Nations Security Council to peace operations and responds to requests for assistance from United Nations Resident Coordinators and national authorities in states affected by explosive ordnance. UNMAS responses are aligned to the objectives of the United Nations Mine Action Strategy and the United Nations vision of a world free from the threat of mines, explosive remnants of war (ERW) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

A surge in conflict across the globe led to increasingly complex demands on the mine action sector. Nevertheless, UNMAS has remained agile and responsive to evolving operational, security and political contexts. The Service activated its Standing Capacity, expanded its partnerships with Member States and non-governmental organizations (NGO) and expanded its training efforts to mitigate the threat of IEDs. UNMAS removed and destroyed tens of thousands of explosive ordnance items, improved the safety of millions of people, strengthened the national capacity of partner governments and reduced the threat of explosive ordnance to civilians—including children—as well as United Nations and humanitarian personnel.

Read more…
Source:  United Nations Mine Action Service


Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • DRC Congo: Bombs hit Goma airport as DRC-M23 battle rages

    February 18, 2024

    The Democratic Republic of Congo has accused neighboring Rwanda of orchestrating a bomb attack at Goma International Airport in Goma city, North Kivu province. The incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning around 02:00 AM when two 81 MM mortar bombs, mounted on commercial drones, struck the airport, causing damage to a Sukhoi-25 fighter ...

  • Central African Republic: UN chief condemns killing of peacekeeper in Ouham-Pendé prefecture

    January 16, 2024

    United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday condemned the killing of one Cameroonian peacekeeper from the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, his spokesman said. Five peacekeepers were injured, two seriously, in a bombing attack in Mbindali, Ouham-Pende Prefecture. The secretary-general expressed his sincere condolences to the victim’s family and the government of ...

  • Somalia: al-Shabaab captures UN-contracted helicopter

    January 11, 2024

    On Wednesday, armed group al-Shabab captured a United Nations-contracted helicopter in Somalia, killing one person and kidnapping several other passengers and crew members on board. The helicopter was on a medical evacuation mission from Beledweyne city in central Somalia and was heading to Wisil town approximately 500km (310 miles) away, but had been forced to land ...

  • UNDP and the Netherlands forge $10 million partnership for mine action in Ukraine

    December 16, 2023

    In a landmark development for Ukraine’s recovery and safety, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Kingdom of the Netherlands announce a new partnership, marked by acontribution of $10 million towards mine action in Ukraine. The initiative will focus on accelerating the clearance of landmines using state-of-the-art technology and bolstering Ukraine’s capacity to manage mine ...

  • Chinese peacekeepers fulfill commitments on peacekeeping battlefield in Lebanon

    December 15, 2023

    The 21st Chinese peacekeeping multi-role engineering company to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), formed by troops from a brigade under the PLA 75th Group Army, concluded its peacekeeping mission and returned to China successfully on the early morning of December 13. The 21st Chinese peacekeeping multi-role engineering company to UNIFIL completed mine-clearing, explosive ...

  • MINUSMA’s Nepalese Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company: Heroes Behind Safe Convoys In Mali

    November 22, 2023

    As MINUSMA inches closer to its withdrawal from Mali by 31st December 2023 in line with UN Security resolution 2690, it is important to acknowledge the significant contributions of the Nepal Explosive Ordnance Disposal company to the implementation of the MINUSMA’s successive mandates in the past decade. Their core mission was to mitigate the IED threat, ...

  • Landmines: New Use Despite Global Ban

    November 14, 2023

    Russia, Myanmar, and Ukraine have used antipersonnel landmines in the past year, and armed groups used them in at least five countries, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing Landmine Monitor 2023, the annual report about the international treaty to ban landmines. The 120-page Landmine Monitor 2023 is the product of the International Campaign to Ban ...

  • UN: 4th Meeting, 2023 Amended Protocol II Group of Experts (CCW)

    November 9, 2023

    The Group of Experts meeting of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Amended Protocol II will take place on 09-10 November 2023 in Room XIX of the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. The Group of Experts will, in accordance with the objectives and purposes of the Convention, continue exchange of information, on a voluntary basis ...

  • UNODC: Afghanistan opium cultivation in 2023 declined 95 per cent following drug ban

    November 5, 2023

    Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan plunged by an estimated 95 per cent following a drug ban imposed by the de facto authorities in April 2022, according to a new research brief from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). UN officials noted that the near-total contraction of the opiate economy is expected to have ...

  • Mali: 15 UN peacekeepers injured by 2 explosive devices in Kidal

    November 4, 2023

    Fifteen U.N. peacekeepers in a convoy withdrawing from a rebel stronghold in northern Mali were injured when vehicles hit improvised explosive devices on two occasions this week, the United Nations said Friday. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said eight peacekeepers injured Wednesday were evacuated by air and “are now reported to be in stable condition.” JNIM, an ...

  • UNICRI: Final review meeting of the Prosecutor’s guide to radiological and nuclear crimes

    November 3, 2023

    The threat of acquiring, producing and disseminating radiological and nuclear hazardous materials for deliberate use has substantially increased over the past ten years. The lack of experience and awareness among law enforcement and judicial authorities, as well as prosecutorial and judicial teams, has been identified as the weakest link in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) ...

  • Top UN official calls for immediate halt to cluster bomb use

    September 16, 2023

    A top official of the United Nations Mine Action Service has appealed to the world to stop using cluster munitions. UNMAS director Ilene Cohn spoke to NHK on Friday while visiting Tokyo. Both Russia and Ukraine have been using cluster bombs since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, with the United States supplying them to Ukraine’s military. ...

  • Yemen’s explosives contamination ‘among world’s worst’

    September 11, 2023

    Yemen has one of the world’s highest rates of contamination with landmines and other deadly explosives, the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned, nine years after the start of the brutal civil war. The impoverished Arab nation, plunged into conflict when Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized the capital in September 2014, is among the three ...

  • UNICEF decries increased deaths of children from landmines in Somalia

    September 11, 2023

    The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has expressed concern about increased deaths and serious injuries to children involved in landmine explosions which have claimed at least 30 lives since June in Somalia. Nejmudin Kedir Bilal, acting UNICEF representative in Somalia, said several children have been victims in three separate incidents that involved discharges of unexploded ordnances ...

  • DR Congo: Few worse places to be a child warns UNICEF as twins found boobytrapped

    September 8, 2023

    UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative in the country, Grant Leaity, issued the alert on Tuesday, revealing that youngsters in eastern DRC face daily atrocities, including rape, abduction and recruitment by armed groups. “I visited a centre in Beni and North Kivu for children released from armed groups where I met a couple of one-year-old twins. They ...