2023-04-25 14:20:17
The presence of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) is the main constraint to humanitarian access to the population. As of April 17, 268 incidents were related to IEDs in our country, more than all the forms of restricted access OCHA faces between 2022 and 2023.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Mali sounds the alarm in its latest periodic report on the impact of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
In the first quarter of this year, humanitarian sources reported several cases of incidents related to explosive devices, resulting in civilian casualties.
More touching and challenging are the cases of the four children aged 11 to 13 who lost their lives in Ségou and Ansongo following the explosion of improvised devices during the last two weeks of March, reports OCHA .
Humanitarian reports from March 2023 indicate that the device that took the lives of children in Ségou was concealed in a soda can. These are signs that the explosive threat takes pernicious forms of trap for innocent and uninformed people, warns the UN Mission.
The humanitarian access dashboard counted 39 incidents related to improvised explosive devices (IED) as of April 17, with more than thirty dead and 86 injured, all victims combined.
For OCHA, this situation calls for rapid action, because the threat of explosive devices extends from the less populated regions of the north to those of the center and the south, densely populated.
“The proliferation and scattering of IEDs/mines in the central regions has a strong impact on people’s access to their livelihoods, basic social services and humanitarian assistance,” OCHA lamented in its bulletin. ‘information.
One of the consequences of this situation is the abandonment of certain areas by humanitarian workers, as is the case of an international NGO in the Gao region which decided to temporarily suspend, at the end of March, its awareness-raising activities. for fear of being hit by explosive devices.
Others bypass roads classified red, with the consequence of additional costs on their intervention capacities.
“Tomorrow, another may have to stop a food or shelter distribution operation, while the need to save lives is pressing today more than ever”, worries OCHA while the financial mobilization for humanitarian action in our countries is not up to expectations.
The UN Mission fears that with the intensification of population movements observed in the first quarter of 2023 that the human impact of IEDs will become greater.
Over the past 15 months, humanitarians and civilian populations have faced a monthly average of 40 incidents, a sign that the threat is taking hold, with the risk of growing sophistication and a more devastating impact, OCHA said in its document.
BY SIKOU BAH
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