Eleven children were killed and one injured in an accident involving unexploded ordnance in South Sudan, the spokeswoman for the UN mission in the violence-wracked country (UNMISS) said on Friday.
The accident happened on Thursday in a remote village in Western Bahr el-Ghazal state, northwest of the capital Juba, according to UNMISS spokeswoman Linda Tom.
“As many as 11 children died, and one is still being treated,” Tom explained.
“The scope of this drama is enormous, and we extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims,” she added.
South Sudan was plunged into a brutal civil war in 2013, two years after achieving independence from Sudan.
The conflict lasted five years and killed nearly 400,000 civilians before the warring leaders Salva Kiir and Riek Machar agreed to lay down their arms.
Landmines and unexploded bombs still cover large areas of the world’s youngest country, posing yet another threat to a population already grappling with armed violence, natural disasters, and hunger.
Globally, “every year, large numbers of civilians are killed and injured by ‘explosive remnants of war’ – unexploded shells, grenades, bombs, etc. left behind after a conflict,” according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
In June 2022, the United Nations Office for Refugees said that experts from the United Nations Mine Action Service had destroyed more than one million explosive devices in South Sudan, including “40,121 mines, 76,879 cluster bombs, and 974,968 other unexploded devices”.
