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A30 world news
Diasabra 5 Februari 2022

Stung by prison battle, Kurds say they need help against IS

(AP) — As South Sudan struggles 2011, but the remnants of past con- ter hole that had been used for cattle, 2026, of the deadline to clear all anti-
for peace, it’s still cleaning up the flict continue to kill civilians today. a crucial part of the livelihoods of personnel minefields in the country.
deadly threat posed by thousands many South Sudanese.
of land mines from previous con- More than 5,000 South Sudanese “South Sudan has challenges years
flict decades ago. have been killed or injured by land Resident Jackline Poni, 38, knows ahead for sure” when it comes to
mines and unexploded ordnance she’s often taking a risk when she mines and similar hazards, said Fran
Cattle herders. Charcoal collectors. since 2004, according to the United goes out to look for firewood or find O’Grady, chief of mine action for
Children. All have been victims of Nations Mine Action Service. More food to feed her three children. UNMAS there. “I will hope in five
long-forgotten mines that contin- than 1 million explosive items have years’ time, South Sudan will be in
ue to make South Sudan one of the been found and destroyed in South “I put God first,” she said, never far better position.”
world’s most dangerous countries for Sudan during that time, UNMAS knowing what she’ll encounter.
unexploded ordnance. says. The mines and unexploded ordnance
South Sudan’s civil war that began in still make areas of South Sudan dan-
The mines are a stealth problem Hundreds of victims have been chil- 2013 and ended five years later de- gerous to travel. That affects every-
among the country’s more pressing dren, curious about the sometimes layed efforts to clear the mines. That, thing from farming to aid distribu-
ones, which include the slow recov- toy-like objects they discover. and the slow implementation of the tion to the resettlement of people re-
ery from a five-year civil war, the peace deal, have denied much of the turning home after the civil war.
worst flooding in decades and hunger South Sudan is one of 21 countries country basic services, much less the
that’s expected to affect more people around the world, including several specialized attention that mine-clear- Some minefields have yet to be sur-
this year than ever during the young in sub-Saharan Africa, with the larg- ing requires. veyed, O’Grady said, notably in the
nation’s decade of existence. est amounts of mine contamination greater Equatoria and Upper Nile
among signatories to the 1997 Mine “What we need now is peace and areas.
The explosives are a danger to frag- Ban Treaty, the international watch- more de-miners,” said Gondokoro
ile efforts at rebuilding and develop- dog group Landmine Monitor wrote resident Simon Paul, 45, who aban- And now climate shocks like the
ment. After a road construction com- in 2020. doned farming in the area because he flooding are an emerging threat.
pany accidentally detonated an anti- found it unsafe. O’Grady said they have changed the
tank mine last year just 25 kilometers Even South Sudan’s relatively low typical demining season and made
(15 miles) outside the capital, Juba, a literacy rate poses a risk as written Jurkuch Barach Jurkuch, chair of it more difficult to reach some areas
mine-clearing team was in the com- warnings can go unnoticed and leaf- National Mine Action Authority, also and plan clearance activities.
munity of Gondokoro last month to lets are reportedly thrown away, the blamed the civil war for the threat
safely detonate over a dozen more. group wrote. that mines continue to pose in the “This is a reality that mine action and
country. communities across the country will
The explosives were older than South Wary residents of Gondokoro have have to face going forward,” he said.
Sudan itself, dating back to the 1980s seen other mine accidents in recent Because of the slow pace of efforts,
and the long fight for independence years. The danger led them to reduce South Sudan recently granted UN-
from Sudan. Independence came in farming activities and access to a wa- MAS a five-year extension, until

Stung by prison battle, Kurds say they need help against IS

(AP) — Weeks after the The region’s Kurdish admin- tants have gone underground fighting IS and in stabilizing providing intelligence against
long, furious battle with istrators say the attack shows in cells that have been car- the areas it captured from the militants.
militants from the Islamic what they have long been rying out low-level hit-and- group during the long cam-
State group over a prison saying: They are not getting run attacks in Syria and Iraq, paign that brought down the Gweiran Prison, the biggest
in northwestern Syria, the enough help to face the Is- mainly targeting security “caliphate.” of the SDF-run prisons, was
mangled wreckage of a car lamic State group as it regains forces. Those attacks have set up in a school campus,
used by suicide bombers strength. been growing, raising fears But she said it is also ham- underscoring how the SDF
still sat outside its perim- the group is gaining momen- pered on multiple fronts. Par- has had to cobble together
eter. Cranes put in place The Kurdish-led Syrian tum. ticularly, its frequent clashes detention centers for the mil-
new cement blast walls to Democratic Forces say the with Turkey, which views the itants.
close off the entrance. Jan. 20 prison attack was not In northeast Syria, governed Kurdish faction running east-
a surprise to them. Local in- by a Kurdish-dominated ad- ern Syria as a terrorist group, On Jan. 20, around 200 mili-
Gaping holes remained in telligence sources had been ministration, the SDF has undermine the anti-IS fight. tants attacked the prison, in
the prison’s outer wall, an showing a growing number been the main force trying to Also, many Arab residents of coordination with a riot by
ominous reminder of the IS of IS sleeper cells in the area. suppress IS, with the back- the region don’t trust that the inmates inside. The attackers
inmates who escaped during But they say they were ham- ing of several hundred U.S. SDF will remain, fearing the broke in, freed some prison-
the fighting. pered in acting because of troops. Americans will pull out or ers, took guards hostage, and
multiple pressures, including the Damascus government held out against SDF fighters
The battle for Gweiran Pris- conflicts with Turkey, insuf- At the same time, the SDF will regain control of the for days, even as aircraft from
on is over; it took 10 days, ficient international help and has to watch over some area — so they are reluctant the U.S.-led coalition struck
but U.S.-backed, Syrian Syria’s economic crisis. 10,000 captured IS fighters to endanger themselves by their positions repeatedly.
Kurdish-led forces finally de- in around two dozen deten-
feated the militants who at- IS suffered a blow with the tion facilities — including
tacked the facility in the city U.S. raid Thursday in north- 2,000 foreigners whose home
of Hassakeh, aiming to break west Syria that killed the countries have refused to re-
free their comrades jailed group’s leader, Abu Ibrahim patriate them. It also oversees
inside, in the group’s largest al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. some 62,000 family members
and most stunning operation But it is unlikely to derail of IS fighters, mostly women
in years. the group’s persistent insur- and children in al-Hol camp.
gency in Iraq and Syria since Many of those family mem-
But the impact continues its command became much bers remain die-hard IS sup-
to reverberate. Residents more decentralized after the porters, and the camp has
in neighboring districts are group’s territorial defeat two seen bouts of militant vio-
locked down as Kurdish years ago. lence.
fighters hunt for fugitive mil-
itants hiding among them. Since IS lost its last hold on Khalifa said the SDF has
any territory in 2019, its mili- done a “remarkable job” in