Africa
5 killed in Kenya as concerns grow over increasing terror attacks
Five people have been killed in a Kenyan border village, fueling concerns that such attacks are increasing after a decline.
The weekend attack raises the death toll over the last month to more than 30 people — including soldiers, police reservists and civilians.
In Saturday's attack in the coastal Lamu county, four of the victims had their throats slit and one was shot at close range, ((according to local police.))Correct
The officials said about 30 attackers also torched houses in the village and stole food.
The village borders Witu Forest, where al-Shabab militants have created hideouts and held abductees.
Read: Days of sweltering heat, power cuts in northern India overwhelm hospitals as death toll climbs
Lamu County has been attacked two other times in the last two weeks, with both incidents targeting Kenya Defense Forces running a security operation in the area and leaving four of them dead.
In Kenya's north, Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties have seen several attacks this month in which more than 10 people - including soldiers, police reservists and civilians - have died.
Al-Shabab has in the past targeted Kenya, but a coordinated operation at the border and inside neighboring Somalia had led to fewer attacks until recently.
Kenyan President William Ruto on Friday suggested that the country’s troops might stay in Somalia into next month, past the date of withdrawal.
“We are very clear and we are going to send a very powerful message to al-Shabab, that they are not going to reverse the gains that we have made in the last couple of years,” he said during a France 24 interview in Paris.
Kenya is among countries in the region that have contributed troops to the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).
Read: Cyclone Biparjoy weakens as it churns toward Pakistan after killing 2 in India and causing damage
Kenyan Interior Minister Kindiki Kithure has assured residents of their safety, citing a budgetary allocation in the upcoming new financial year to purchase advanced security equipment.
Defense Minister Aden Duale last week warned locals in Garissa County against aiding and working with militants.
More security personnel have been deployed to the border areas to enhance security.
Read more: Doctors advise people over 60 to stay indoors as India's northern state swelters in extreme heat
Sudan officials say airstrike kills 17, including 5 children, in capital Khartoum
An airstrike in Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Saturday killed at least 17 people, including five children, health officials said, as fighting continued between rival generals seeking to control the country.
The attack was one of the deadliest of the clashes in urban areas of Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan between the military and a powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.
Read: Pakistani officials say bus accident in Salt mountain range kills 12, injures 8
There was no immediate comment Saturday from either side of the conflict on the strike, and it was not clear whether the attack was by warplanes or a drone. The military’s aircraft have repeatedly targeted RSF troops and the RSF has reportedly used drones and anti-aircraft weapons against the military.
The fighting broke out in mid-April, capping months of increasing tensions between the leaders of the military and the RSF.
Saturday’s strike hit the Yormouk neighborhood in southern Khartoum, where clashes have centered in recent weeks, according to Sudan's Ministry of Health. The area houses a military facility controlled by the army. At least 25 houses were destroyed, the ministry wrote in a Facebook post.
The dead included five children and an unknown number of women and elderly people, and some wounded people were hospitalized, the ministry said.
A local group that calls itself The Emergency Room and helps organize humanitarian aid in the area, said at least 11 people were wounded in the strike. It posted images it said were of houses damaged in the attack and people searching through rubble. Other images claimed to show a wounded girl and man.
Read: At least 41 killed in rebel attack on Ugandan school near Congo border
The conflict has plunged the African country into chaos and turned Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields. The paramilitary force has occupied people’s houses and other civilian properties since the onset of the conflict, according to residents and activists.
The clashes have killed hundreds of civilians and wounded thousands of others. More than 2.2 million people have fled their homes to safer areas inside Sudan or crossed into neighboring countries.
Activists and residents have reported widespread looting in the capital. Diplomatic missions, including residences belong to the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, have been stormed and looted, allegedly by armed men wearing RSF uniforms. Almost all diplomatic missions in Sudan were evacuated in the first weeks of the war.
“Looting was fairly extensive at some of the residences,” the U.S. Department of State told The Associated Press. “The damage was discovered during routine checks of the residences. There is some damage to the structures and personal property.”
Read: Eliminate legal barriers to women owning land: UN chief
Sexual violence, including the rape of women and girls, has been reported in Khartoum and the western Darfur region, which have seen some of the worst fighting in the conflict. Almost all reported cases of sexual attacks were blamed on the RSF, which hasn't responded to repeated requests for comment.
The Darfur city of Genena has experienced some of the worst battles, with tens of thousands of its residents fleeing to neighboring Chad. The RSF and allied Arab militias have repeatedly attacked the city, especially areas of the non-Arab Masalit community, since late April, according to residents and activists.
The attacks intensified earlier this month. Volker Perthes, the U.N envoy in Sudan, said last week that the fighting in Genena has taken on “an ethnic dimension,” with Arab militias and armed men in RSF uniforms showing :an emerging pattern of large-scale targeted attacks against civilians based on their ethnic identities.”
On Wednesday, West Darfur Gov. Khamis Abdalla Abkar, who hails from the Masalit, was abducted and killed hours after he accused the RSF and allied Arab militias in a televised interview of attacking Genena. His slaying was blamed on the RSF, a charge the paramilitary force denied.
Martin Griffiths, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official, decried the fighting in Darfur on Thursday, especially in Genena where trapped residents “are living a nightmare.”
“Babies dying in hospitals where they were being treated; children and mothers suffering from severe malnutrition; camps for displaced persons burned to the ground; girls raped; schools closed; and families eating leaves to survive,” he said.
Griffiths urged the international community to intervene to avert another cycle of violence such as the one Darfur experienced in the early 2000s when it was the scene of genocidal war.
Ethnic Africans rebelled, accusing the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum of discrimination. Former dictator Omar al-Bashir’s government was accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic Arab tribes, known as Janjaweed, who targeted civilians. The Janjaweed later evolved into the RSF.
“Darfur is rapidly spiraling into a humanitarian calamity. The world cannot allow this to happen. Not again,” Griffiths said.
At least 41 killed in rebel attack on Ugandan school near Congo border
Ugandan authorities recovered the bodies of 41 people, including 38 students, following an attack by suspected rebels on secondary school near the border with Congo, the local mayor said Saturday.
The victims included the students, one guard and two members of the local community who were killed outside the school, Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Mayor Selevest Mapoze told The Associated Press. An unknown number of people were abducted by the rebels, who fled across the porous border into Congo after the raid on Friday night.
Also Read: At least 25 killed in rebel attack on Ugandan school near Congo border
Mapoze said that while some of the students suffered fatal burns when the rebels set fire to a dormitory, others were shot or hacked with machetes.
Police said that rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces, who have been launching attacks for years from their bases in volatile eastern Congo, carried out the raid on Lhubiriha Secondary School in the border town of Mpondwe.
The school, co-ed and privately owned, is located in the Ugandan district of Kasese, about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Congo border.
Also Read: In Uganda, a recent ban on charcoal making disrupts a lucrative but destructive business
"A dormitory was set on fire and a food store looted. So far 25 bodies have been recovered from the school and transferred to Bwera Hospital," police said in a statement, adding that eight others were in critical condition.
Police said Ugandan troops tracked the attackers into Congo's Virunga National Park. The military confirmed in a statement that Ugandan troops inside Congo "are pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted."
Joe Walusimbi, an official representing Uganda's president in Kasese, told The Associated Press over the phone that some of the victims "were burnt beyond recognition."
Also Read: In Uganda, a recent ban on charcoal making disrupts a lucrative but destructive business
Winnie Kiiza, an influential political leader and a former lawmaker from the region, condemned the "cowardly attack" on Twitter. She said "attacks on schools are unacceptable and are a grave violation of children's rights," adding that schools should always be "a safe place for every student."
The ADF has been accused of launching many attacks in recent years, targeting civilians, in remote parts of eastern Congo.
The ADF has long opposed the rule of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a U.S. security ally who has been in power since 1986.
The group was established in the early 1990s by some Ugandan Muslims, who said they had been sidelined by Museveni's policies. At the time, the rebels staged deadly attacks in Ugandan villages as well as in the capital, including a 1998 attack in which 80 students were massacred in a town not from the scene of the latest attack.
Also Read: Recycling lake litter, Ugandan makes innovative tourist boat
A Ugandan military assault later forced the ADF into eastern Congo, where many rebel groups are able to operate because the central government has limited control there.
The group has since established ties with the Islamic State group.
In March , at least 19 people were killed in Congo by suspected ADF extremists.
Ugandan authorities for years have vowed to track down ADF militants even outside Ugandan territory. In 2021, Uganda launched joint air and artillery strikes in Congo against the group.
At least 25 killed in rebel attack on Ugandan school near Congo border
Suspected Ugandan rebels with ties to the Islamic State group attacked a school near the Congo border, killing at least 25 people, abducting others and setting a dormitory on fire, officials said Saturday.
Police said the rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces, who have been launching attacks for years from their bases in volatile eastern Congo, carried out the raid late Friday on Lhubiriha Secondary School in the border town of Mpondwe.
Also Read: At least 15 people killed and dozens injured in bus crash in Mali
The school, co-ed and privately owned, is located in the Ugandan district of Kasese, about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Congo border.
"A dormitory was set on fire and a food store looted. So far 25 bodies have been recovered from the school and transferred to Bwera Hospital," police said in a statement, adding that eight others were in critical condition.
Also Read: In Uganda, a recent ban on charcoal making disrupts a lucrative but destructive business
A government official and a military spokesman said others were abducted.
It was not immediately clear if all of the victims were students.
Police said Ugandan troops tracked the attackers into Congo's Virunga National Park. The military confirmed in a statement that Ugandan troops inside Congo "are pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted."
Also Read: Recycling lake litter, Ugandan makes innovative tourist boat
Joe Walusimbi, an official representing Uganda's president in Kasese, told The Associated Press over the phone that authorities were trying to verify the number of victims and those abducted.
"Some bodies were burnt beyond recognition," he said.
Winnie Kiiza, an influential political leader and a former lawmaker from the region, condemned the "cowardly attack" on Twitter. She said "attacks on schools are unacceptable and are a grave violation of children's rights," adding that schools should always be "a safe place for every student."
The Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, has been accused of launching many attacks in recent years, targeting civilians, in remote parts of eastern Congo.
The ADF has long opposed the rule of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a U.S. security ally who has been in power since 1986.
The group was established in the early 1990s by some Ugandan Muslims, who said they had been sidelined by Museveni's policies. At the time, the rebels staged deadly attacks in Ugandan villages as well as in the capital, including a 1998 attack in which 80 students were massacred in a town not from the scene of the latest attack.
A Ugandan military assault later forced the ADF into eastern Congo, where many rebel groups are able to operate because the central government has limited control there.
The group has since established ties with the Islamic State group.
In March , at least 19 people were killed in Congo by suspected ADF extremists.
Ugandan authorities for years have vowed to track down ADF militants even outside Ugandan territory. In 2021, Uganda launched joint air and artillery strikes in Congo against the group.
At least 15 people killed and dozens injured in bus crash in Mali
At least 15 people were killed and dozens injured when two passenger buses collided with a truck in Mali, the government said.
The accident occurred Tuesday morning between Fana and Konobougou cities in the country's south, said Mama Djenepo, the secretary general for Mali's ministry of transport.
Also Read: At least 103 wedding guests killed when boat capsizes in northern Nigeria
"The accident involved two passenger coaches bound for Mopti, which collided with a 10-ton truck carrying livestock traveling in the opposite direction," he said, adding that the cause is believed to be speeding by tired drivers.
Also Read: 3 Bangladeshi peacekeepers injured in IED blast in Mali
While traffic accidents are common in Mali, especially during the rainy season, this is the worst in the West African nation this year, the government said. More than 680 people were killed last year in road accidents and some 8,200 were injured.
Also Read: UN agencies warn of starvation risk in Sudan, Haiti, Burkina Faso and Mali, call for urgent aid
South Sudan's sluggish peace deal and unsteady road to elections
Martha Nyanguour didn't have time to bury her husband, son or granddaughter when they were killed by gunfire in September. Instead, the 50-year-old paid her respects by throwing bits of grass over their bodies, grabbed her remaining children and fled.
It had taken years for the mother of seven to muster the courage to return to South Sudan and trust its fragile peace deal ending a civil war. But weeks after she arrived in Atar town in Upper Nile state, fighting erupted between militias aligned with government and opposition forces.
Also Read: Abducted Bangladeshi peacekeeper rescued in South Sudan
"I thought if there was peace I was supposed to go back to my land," said Nyanguour, seated under a tree in Kowach village in Canal Pigi county where she now lives with thousands of other displaced people, five days' walk through swamp water from her home village. "I thought maybe there would be peace in the future, but now, hearing gunshots daily, I think South Sudan will remain in war."
In 18 months, South Sudan is supposed to hold its first presidential elections, the culmination of the peace agreement signed nearly five years ago to pull the young nation out of fighting that killed some 400,000 people. While large-scale clashes have subsided, violence in parts of the country persists, killing 2,240 people last year, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. Earlier this month at least 20 people were killed and more than 50 wounded during inter-communal clashes in a United Nations protection camp in the north of the country.
Also Read: South Sudan struggles to clear mines after decades of war as people start returning home
Implementation of the peace agreement has been sluggish. The elections, originally scheduled for this year, were postponed until December 2024. Other key elements of the deal have not been implemented, sparking concern that the country could see a return to war instead of a transfer of power.
"We are going to go for (the) electoral process without meeting the benchmarks that create a conducive environment for the conduct of elections," said Edmund Yakani, executive director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, a local advocacy group. "The return of the country to violence is more evident than the country staying in stability."
A permanent constitution still has not been drafted. A census has not been conducted. Security arrangements, considered the backbone of the agreement, are only partially complete. Some 83,000 soldiers from opposition and government forces are meant to unite in a national army, but so far 55,000 have graduated and are yet to be deployed.
Also Read: Thousands of exhausted South Sudanese head home, fleeing brutal conflict
Others languish in training centers with poor conditions and little food. Soldiers say many are rarely paid. Locals involved with the security arrangements say there's so little trust that the main parties have held back key fighters, sending less seasoned ones or new recruits.
In addition, Joshua Craze, a researcher on South Sudan, says, "The peace agreement signed in 2018 has enabled the government to fragment the opposition by encouraging defections and setting commanders against each other, intensifying violent conflict."
The opposition accuses the government of lacking political will to hold elections so it can keep plundering the nation's resources, which include oil. "They don't have genuine political will to implement the peace agreement because they look at the agreement from the angle that it is crippling their powers," said Puok Both Baluang, acting press secretary for the first vice president, head of the main opposition and former rebel leader Riek Machar.
South Sudan has billions of dollars in reserves but there is little transparency on where the money goes. The country was voted the second most corrupt in the world last year by Transparency International.
The international community is exasperated with South Sudan's lack of progress.
At a press conference in May, United Nations representative Nicholas Haysom cautioned that the conditions did not currently exist to hold transparent, free and fair elections. But some diplomats are concerned that another extension to the peace deal would send a negative message to South Sudanese citizens, investors and aid donors.
The government says it's serious about the peace process and will hold elections on time. During a conference in May on reconciliation and healing, President Salva Kiir vowed that "I will never take South Sudan and its people to war again."
The capital, Juba, appears peaceful. Billboards of Kiir and Machar shaking hands above the words "peace, unity, reconciliation and development" line the streets. Children of the political elites are returning with money and opening trendy restaurants, and construction is booming.
But outside the capital is a different reality.
The fighting that killed Nyanguour's family last year also sent tens of thousands fleeing, part of the highest displacement levels since the peace agreement was signed, according to a report by a U.N. panel of experts. It said government and opposition forces played facilitating roles in the violence.
The conflict in Upper Nile cut off access to healthcare, with some severely wounded people having to travel up to four days by canoe to the closest clinic, aid workers said. "The biggest issue was accessibility. It was hard to bring in supplies," said Kudumreng David, a supervisor for the International Medical Corps in Kowach.
Food has also become scarce as fighting worsens conditions after years of floods and cuts in food aid. In Kowach, some children rip leaves from trees into a pot for their only meal of the day.
Many people outside Juba said they didn't even know elections were set for next year.
"We heard there's peace but it hasn't reached here," said Roda Awel, a resident of Kowach. "People are still afraid."
Sudan's government declares UN envoy ‘persona non grata’
The United Nations envoy to Sudan, a key mediator in the country's brutal conflict, is no longer welcome in the African country, Sudanese authorities say.
A terse statement issued by Sudan's Foreign Ministry late Thursday comes just weeks after the head of the country's military, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, demanded in a letter to envoy Volker Perthes that he should be removed from his post.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has been notified that Perthes has been formally declared "persona non grata," the Foreign Ministry said.
Also read: Abducted Bangladeshi peacekeeper rescued in South Sudan
Since Apr. 15, Sudan's military, headed by Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have been locked in a violent power struggle that has killed more than 860 civilians, according to Sudan's Doctors' Syndicate which tracks civilian casualties. The actual death tally is likely to be much higher.
Perthes has been a key mediator in Sudan since being appointed as special envoy in 2021, first during the country's failed attempts to transition to democracy and then as relations between the military and the RSF deteriorated. Fighting exploded last month.
Neither the UN nor Volker immediately commented.
Also read: US, Saudi Arabia call for warring sides in Sudan to extend ‘imperfect’ cease-fire
In recent months, the German diplomat has received death threats and numerous calls to resign. In his letter last month, Burhan accused Perthes of "being partisan," and negatively contributing to pre-war talks between the generals and pro-democracy groups in the weeks building up to the conflict.
Responding to these allegations, Volker told The Associated Press that those who threatened him were marginal "extremists" and that there is a wide appreciation of UN efforts in Sudan, which has relocated its headquarters to the coastal city of Port Sudan.
The conflict between the two generals has reduced Khartoum to an urban battlefield, with many districts of the city without running water or electricity. There have been reports of widespread looting and sexual violence, including the rape of women and girls in Khartoum and the western Darfur region, which have seen some of the worst fighting in the conflict. Almost all reported cases of sexual attacks were blamed on the RSF, which didn't respond to repeated requests for comment.
Also read: Sudan military ruler seeks removal of UN envoy in letter to UN chief, who is 'shocked' by the demand
On Wednesday, 297 children were rescued from an orphanage in Sudan's capital after being trapped there while fighting raged outside, UNICEF said. The evacuation came after 71 children died from hunger and illness in the facility since mid-April.
More than 2 million people displaced, Burkina Faso’s government says, as aid falls short
Violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group has made Burkina Faso a country with one of the world's fastest-growing populations of internally displaced people, with the number mushrooming by more than 2,000% since 2019, according to government data.
Figures released last month showed more than 2 million people are internally displaced in the West African nation, the majority of them women and children, fueling a dire humanitarian crisis as the conflict pushed people from their homes, off their farms and into congested urban areas or makeshift camps.
Aid groups and the government are scrambling to respond amid a lack of funds and growing needs. One in four people requires aid, and tens of thousands are facing catastrophic levels of hunger. Yet not even half of the $800 million humanitarian response budget requested last year by aid groups was funded, according to the United Nations.
Also Read: UN agencies warn of starvation risk in Sudan, Haiti, Burkina Faso and Mali, call for urgent aid
"The spectrum of consequences (for people) is vast but grim at every point. A lot of people might die, and they're dying because they weren't able to access food and health services, because they weren't properly protected, and the humanitarian assistance and the government response wasn't sufficient," Alexandra Lamarche, a senior fellow at advocacy group Refugees International, said.
The violence has divided a once-peaceful nation, leading to two coups last year. Military leaders vowed to to stem the insecurity, but jihadi attacks have continued and spread since Capt. Ibrahim Traore seized power in September.
The government retains control of less than 50% of the country, largely in rural areas, according to conflict analysts. Al-Qaida and Islamic State-affiliated groups control or threaten large areas, said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Morocco-based think tank.
"State security forces don't have the resources (human and equipment) to fight both groups at all fronts," he said.
The jihadis' strategy of blocking towns, preventing people from moving freely and goods from flowing in, has compounded the displacement crisis. Some 800,000 people in more than 20 towns are under siege, say aid groups.
Also Read: Mass killing of civilians by security forces in Burkina Faso
"The situation is very difficult. ... People don't have food, children don't have school," Bibata Sangli, 53, who left the eastern town of Pama in January 2022 just before it came under siege. She still has family there who are unable to leave, Sangli said.
A community leader who last year met Jafar Dicko, the top jihadi in Burkina Faso, said Dicko's group blockades towns that don't accept its rules, such as banning alcohol and requiring women to be veiled their faces. The leader spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.
In January, the United Nations began using Chinook heavy-lift helicopters to airlift food to areas inaccessible by road - an extremely costly approach. The three Chinooks were reduced to one in May, making it harder to reach many people as quickly.
While the humanitarian situation deteriorates, so has the ability of aid groups to operate.
Since the military takeovers of Burkina Faso's government began in January 2022, incidents against aid organizations perpetrated by the security forces increased from one in 2021 to 11 last year, according to unpublished data for aid groups seen by The Associated Press. The incidents included workers being arrested, detained and injured.
In November, security forces killed a humanitarian worker with a Burkina Faso aid organization in the Sahel region, the vast expanse below the Sahara Desert, according to a text message sent to an aid worker WhatsApp group seen by the AP.
Rights groups, analysts and civilians say Traore, the junta leader, is only focused on achieving military gains and cares little about human rights, freedom of speech or holding people accountable for indiscriminate killings of individuals suspected of supporting the militants.
Burkina Faso's security forces killed at least 150 civilians in the north in April, according to local residents from the village of Karma, where most of the violence took place. Prosecutors said they opened an investigation into the killings.
Earlier this year, an AP investigation into a video circulating on social media determined that Burkina Faso's security forces killed children at a military base in the country's north.
While the government wages war, civilians bear the brunt and are running out of hope.
After jihadis attacked his village in eastern Burkina Faso in April, killing people and stealing cattle, a father of five, who did not want to be identified for security reasons, fled to the region's main town of Fada N'Gourma.
But now his family doesn't have food or access to health care, and the assistance supplied by humanitarian groups isn't enough, he said.
"Since we've been displaced, our situation keeps getting worse," the 46-year-old man said. "I miss my home."
13 members of same family die in Namibia after eating toxic porridge, reports say
Thirteen members of the same family have died in Namibia after eating porridge that authorities believe became toxic when it was mixed with a fermented substance left over from a homemade alcoholic beverage, the state broadcaster reported.
The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation said another four people are in a criticial condition in the hospital. NBC, quoting the Namibian health ministry, said at least 20 people consumed the "poisonous or toxic" porridge after it was mixed with sediment from a homemade beer.
The victims ranged in age from 2 to 33, NBC said.
The incident happened in the Kavango East region in the far northeast of the country.
South Sudan struggles to clear mines after decades of war as people start returning home
For the first time since fleeing South Sudan's civil war eight years ago, Jacob Wani returned home excited to rebuild his life.
But when the 45-year-old farmer tried to access his land in Eastern Equatoria state's Magwi County, he was banned, told that it had been labeled hazardous and contaminated with mines.
"My area is dangerous," Wani said, standing in his shop in Moli village where he now lives, a few miles from the farm. "I do not have the capacity to rebuild in this place and I am also afraid (of explosives). If I go, maybe something can hurt me."
As South Sudanese trickle back into the country after a peace deal was signed in 2018 to end a five-year civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions, many are returning to areas riddled with mines left from decades of conflict. More than 5,000 South Sudanese have been killed or injured by land mines and unexploded ordnance since 2004, according to the U.N. Mine Action Service (UNMAS).
South Sudan is trying to clear all anti-personnel minefields and cluster munitions in the country by 2026.
While more than 84 million square meters of cluster munitions and mines have been cleared in nearly two decades, according to UNMAS — equivalent to approximately 15,000 American football fields — experts doubt that the deadline will be met as munitions are being found across the country daily. Ten people were killed in March after mistakenly playing with a grenade in a remote village in Western Bahr el Ghazal State.
"The contamination is too huge," said Jurkuch Barach Jurkuch, chairperson for South Sudan National Mines Action. Efforts are also complicated by a lack of funding, continued insecurity and flooding during the rainy season, he said.
Eastern Equatoria state, along the border with Uganda, is South Sudan's most heavily contaminated area, hit by wars with northern Sudan before gaining independence in 2011, fighting with the Lord's Resistance Army led by Uganda's notorious warlord Joseph Kony and South Sudan's civil war.
By the end of 2021, the state had the most areas with cluster munitions in the country — 55 out of a total of 123 — according to Mine Action Review, which does global mine analysis. The state is also the second most returned to in the country since the peace agreement, with more than 115,00 people coming back, according to the U.N.
During a visit to Magwi County in May, families told The Associated Press that they had their food rations cut by 50% in refugee camps in Uganda, which pushed them to come back hoping they'd be able to cultivate. But people are returning to the remnants of conflict-riddled villages, with little food, shelter or open schools, all of which is compounded by the mines. In some communes, more than half of the area is contaminated, locals say.
"Whenever there is a land mine, there is a danger. So everybody fears to go cultivate and do activities in the bush because of fear of land mines," said Sebit Kilama, a community leader.
Private contractors and aid groups are trying to clear the area from contamination, but say the task is enormous.
During clearance in a cluster munitions site in May by the aid group MAG, focused on mine clearance, 16 unexploded munitions were found in less than a week of work. Locals are also finding devices a few miles from main roads. When AP journalists visited, a villager alerted the demining team of an unexploded 60 millimeter mortar shell, which he found a few miles into the brush.
MAG is working with communities to raise awareness about the danger of mines and other unexploded ordnance.
"Land mines don't have an expiry date," said Clara Hayat, a community outreach officer with MAG, during a talk to a group of children in a village where people recently returned from Uganda.
"Don't bring them home, because they can kill," she said.