Speaking on the sidelines of a key international meeting in support of landmine action taking place at UN Geneva, experts in the field explained how shrinking resources in Afghanistan and Nigeria have exposed civilians to unexploded ordnance.

They stressed that mine action programmes, often viewed as long-term recovery initiatives, are in fact emergency humanitarian interventions that save lives.

Afghanistan’s child victims

According to the UN-partnered Landmine Monitor report, a staggering 77 per cent of all casualties in Afghanistan last year were children.

Some 54 people are killed there every month by the explosive remnants of war, giving the country the third highest explosive ordnance casualty rate in the world.

“It tends to be kids, mostly boys in the hills tending sheep and goats and they are picking up things of interest and playing with them or throwing stones at them and killing or injuring themselves,” explained Nick Pond, who heads mine action work at the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Despite the urgent need for more deminers to make Afghanistan safe after decades of conflict, a lack of funding has meant that the UN-led team has “dropped and dropped”, Mr. Pond told journalists. “In 2011 there were 15,000 people working in demining, and now we’ve got about 1,300.”

Total recorded child casualties in Afghanistan since 1999 number 30,154 children, “so the work in Afghanistan is key to decreasing the [global] number of casualties”, said Christelle Loupforest, UNMAS Representative in Geneva.

She noted that although mine clearance work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Sudan has recently received better support, the situation in Afghanistan and Nigeria remains dire, with programmes facing imminent suspension without new donor commitments.

“It’s the same for our programme in Ethiopia,” she said.

Sudan’s growing dangers

The situation across Sudan is also deeply concerning for stretched landmine clearance teams who fear for the 1.5 million civilians who have returned to the capital, Khartoum, the initial epicentre of the ongoing conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Just five UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) clearance teams are at work in Sudan today and “all of them are in Khartoum, because the need is so big there”, explained Sediq Rashid, UNMAS chief in Sudan.

“Lots of accidents happened already and it’s very, very clear: unexploded ordnance is not different than Afghanistan or Syria or Nigeria.”

El Fasher latest

Summarising the situation in El Fasher, the city besieged for more than 500 days until recently overrun by RSF forces, Mr Rashid said that access remains extremely challenging. He noted that while civilians endured the siege, “the shelling never stopped” and even today “[it] is not completely stopped…there are reports of the presence of landmines as well, so it’s very concerning.”

Back in Khartoum, he said that teams have cleared the runway of the city’s main airport, “so we are hoping that at some point Khartoum Airport will become functional and that will make things much easier in terms of deploying the humanitarian aid workers to the area”.

Nigeria returnees at risk

In Nigeria, demining teams worry that displaced communities – with camps closing and nowhere else to go – risk returning to areas where lethal explosive remnants may be hidden from view.

A full 80 per cent of all civilian casualties have occurred in 11 of the 15 areas of return, said Edwin Faigmane, UNMAS chief in Nigeria.

In response, UNMAS has trained Nigerian security forces, police and civil defence workers on risk education in unstable and “hard-to-reach” areas.

The tactic has paid off, Mr Faigmane said, “as we have begun receiving reports back from the police or from community members saying that they found an item and that they’ve reported it to the village authorities or village leaders, who then reported on to the security and the military forces”.

Gazans still in extreme danger

In Gaza, UNMAS chief there Julius Van Der Walt noted that two years of intensive combat between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces had left an “absolutely immense” level of contamination.

This directly threatens civilians and obstructs essential support to the Strip’s 2.1 million residents by restricting humanitarian operations, slowing recovery efforts and making reconstruction extremely dangerous.

People are being injured “simply by collecting basic necessities on a day-to-day basis”, he said, while many families “have no choice” but to shelter in areas suspected of containing explosive ordnance. “Safer alternatives simply do not exist.”

UNMAS conducts an explosive hazard assessment of a logistics base in Rafah. The explosive ordnance that was found was marked with warning signs.

West Bank situation worsening

Turning to the West Bank, Mr. Van Der Walt pointed to the increasing risk of widespread explosive ordnance contamination in densely populated areas, refugee camps, urban centres and rural areas. “Communities are being forced to live side by side with deadly remnants of war,” he said.

The UN Secretary-General’s campaign on mine action launched on 16 June 2025 to insist that the norms of humanitarian disarmament are upheld – and to accelerate mine action in support of human rights and national development.

The campaign is a call to action to strengthen international disarmament efforts, and protect civilians – in particular children who made up 46 per cent of casualties in 2024 – from the impact of explosive ordnance. 

Fighting erupted between rival militaries in April 2023 following a breakdown in the transition to civilian rule, following the overthrow of longtime former President Omar al-Bashir four years earlier.

The army of Sudan’s military government has been battling the formerly allied fighters of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia for control of the vast country, where more than 12 million people have been uprooted.

Millions have fled across the border in what is the world’s largest displacement crisis.

In an in-depth interview with UN News, the UN human rights office’s (OHCHR) top official in Sudan, Li Fung, outlines the scale of violations unfolding, the urgent need for accountability, and why the courage of Sudanese communities remains a vital source of hope.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

UN News: As we mark Human Rights Day, how would you characterize the current human rights situation in Sudan?

Li Fung: It remains extremely grave. The situation is first and foremost a human rights and protection crisis driven by two and half years of conflict and widespread violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law across the country.

This has triggered the world’s largest humanitarian emergency, mass displacement and shocking levels of hunger.

The scale and brutality of violations we continue to document reflect a crisis that has shattered the lives of millions, and stripped countless Sudanese of the basic protections every human being is entitled to.

The devastating impact of the conflict on the civilian population is hard to put into words. Cities reduced to rubble, families torn apart overnight, and civilians forced to make impossible choices just to survive.

But in this context, OHCHR continues to stand with the people of Sudan, to bear witness and document violations, to advocate for actions to protect human rights and to support the UN and humanitarian response.

On Human Rights Day, our message is clear: the human rights of the Sudanese people must be upheld. All parties must respect their obligations under international law, and they must protect civilians and ensure accountability for violations. The people of Sudan deserve peace, justice and full respect for their basic human rights.

UN News: Many Sudanese fear that the ongoing violations will go unpunished. What accountability mechanism currently exists and what role can OHCHR play in ensuring justice for victims in Sudan?

Li Fung: Accountability does remain one of the most urgent challenges in Sudan, but despite the challenges of the current situation, there are various mechanisms.

OHCHR, and particularly our country office in Sudan, have a very important role to play in advancing accountability. We are continuing to document and verify violations of international law in extremely challenging conditions, from the perspective of preserving what has happened on the ground, giving a voice to survivors, victims and witnesses and ensuring that this can feed into accountability processes.

We also report to the High Commissioner [Volker Türk], who reports to the Human Rights Council, and this ensures that the situation in Sudan remains on the international agenda. Furthermore, we engage with survivors, we advocate for their rights, for their inclusion, and we support efforts to rebuild and strengthen rule of law institutions that can deliver justice.

At the international level, there are several important mechanisms as well, including the International Criminal Court [ICC], who has a mandate to investigate international crimes.

Also, the Human Rights Council has established an international, independent fact-finding mission on Sudan, whose role is complementary to our role as a country office, and they are documenting the violations, looking at responsibility and the international crimes that may have been committed.

But in amongst all these international efforts, it is important to highlight domestic accountability; and that is why we are working with different rule of law institutions looking at capacities to advance accountability and justice for the people of Sudan.

UN News: As we all know, access to the affected areas in Sudan and especially Darfur is extremely limited. How can the international community meaningfully support the documentation of human rights violations in these areas?

Li Fung: In terms of the response to the crisis in Sudan, the support of the international community is vital in many ways. Firstly, funding the human rights response, the humanitarian response requires resources to be able to meet the dire needs and the priorities of the people of Sudan.

Secondly, political action. Member States have got an incredibly important role to play in upholding international law, using their influence to press for dialogue, for peace, to reach a ceasefire, to really end arms flows, to advance on accountability and justice for the people of Sudan.

Documentation of the violations on the ground is critical for all these efforts because it really informs the efforts in response to the humanitarian needs, the priorities of the population, to advance the protection of civilians through very concrete, measurable actions.

OHCHR Team in Sudan listens to Sudanese women in Khartoum.

UN News: This is not the first time that Sudan has witnessed such violations in human rights – and many attribute this to decades of impunity. What concrete actions must the international community take to finally break this vicious cycle of impunity?

Li Fung: Impunity feeds persistent cycles of violence and violations. Concrete actions can be taken including supporting all efforts to seek accountability, supporting fact-finding, monitoring and documentation, which will lead to accountability processes to really call for the protection of civilians and for investigation.

It is also key to include accountability on the pathway towards peace for Sudan, as well as to advocate for inclusion of all the voices of the Sudanese people from across the country, to achieve a sustainable, peaceful future for Sudan.

UN News: Finally, is there any light at the end of the tunnel regarding the human rights situation?

Li Fung: Yes, despite the immense suffering that we see and the scale of the violations that we continue to document, there is light, and it comes first and foremost from the Sudanese people themselves.

Despite enormous challenges, Sudanese human rights defenders, local humanitarian volunteers and community groups and networks continue to demonstrate extraordinary courage and persistence.

Their resilience and their initiatives to support their own communities underscore the urgent need for sustained international retention, for stronger protection measures and for unimpeded humanitarian access. Their determination, even in cities scarred by conflict, is a powerful reminder that the foundations of a just and sustained future still exist.

I think there’s also hope in the renewed attention on the situation in Sudan. It is unfortunate that despite many warnings about the risks of atrocities and widespread violations, it was only once this occurred that international attention started to be paid to Sudan. But now we need to seize on this moment. We will continue to stand with the people of Sudan.