The United Nations issued a grave humanitarian warning on Wednesday, stating that hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in Nigeria face the critical and often lethal danger of unexploded ordnance (UXO) as they return to communities still littered with hidden explosive remnants of war.
Speaking at a crucial international meeting supporting mine action at the UN in Geneva, experts detailed how shrinking resources in both Nigeria and Afghanistan are dramatically increasing civilian exposure to these hazards. They stressed that mine action programs, while often perceived as long-term recovery initiatives, are, in fact, essential emergency humanitarian interventions that save lives.
Nigeria: High Risk in Return Areas
Mr. Edwin Faigmane, Chief of the Mine Action Programme, representing UNMAS (United Nations Mine Action Service) in Nigeria, confirmed the devastating risks facing those returning home as displaced persons camps close down.
Faigmane said that returnees in the country were at great risk of landmine deaths. He quantified the danger, revealing that 80 per cent of all civilian casualties had occurred in 11 of the 15 areas of return.
In response to this crisis, UNMAS has pivoted its strategy, focusing on training local security personnel. The organization has trained Nigerian security forces, police and civil defence workers on risk education in unstable and “hard-to-reach” areas.
This localized approach has already shown signs of success, Faigmane reported: “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.”
Afghanistan: Children Bear the Brunt
The meeting also highlighted the devastating human cost of explosive remnants in Afghanistan, which has the world’s third-highest explosive ordnance casualty rate, claiming an average of 54 people every month.
According to the UN-partnered Landmine Monitor report, the victims are overwhelmingly children: a staggering 77 per cent of all casualties in Afghanistan in 2024 were children.
Nick Pond, who heads mine action work at the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, described the circumstances of these tragedies: “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.”
Despite the urgent need for personnel to clear the country following decades of conflict, Pond lamented that a dire lack of funding has caused the UN-led team to shrink dramatically. “In 2011, there were 15,000 people working in demining, and now we’ve got about 1,300,” he told journalists.
Christelle Loupforest, UNMAS Representative in Geneva, underscored the urgency, noting that total recorded child casualties in Afghanistan since 1999 stand at 30,154 children, adding, “so the work in Afghanistan is key to decreasing the [global] number of casualties.”
Funding Crisis Threatens Closure
While Loupforest noted that mine-clearance work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Sudan has recently received better support, the situation in Afghanistan and Nigeria remains dire. She warned that programs in both nations are facing imminent suspension without new donor commitments.
She also confirmed that the funding crisis extends further: “It’s the same for our programme in Ethiopia,” she said, emphasizing the precarious state of mine action operations across multiple global hotspots.
