Balanbale District In Galgaduud Region Land-mine Incident

Balanbale On the border between Somalia and Ethiopia, has various historic challenges and experiences, in 1982 Ethiopian troops conquered   the district and destroyed the entire infrastructure and the social institutions including the civilian residences, assets and resources, this was as a result of the war between the regimes ruling the two countries at that moment.

These affected led Balanbale to be luck of social amenities and infrastructures up to date. This put the lives of many civilian at risk.  After Ethiopia withdrawal in 1988 the district was left with full of land mines planted in every step within the district and up to date there is no demanding action taken by any authority, organization and any other body to address the issue.                                            Chidren Playing on Remnants of Tanks ERW and UXO's Every where... ERW's Scattered everywhere

These landmines are risk to human life. In some situation when ever children are sent to schools, looking after livestock or  play on the anti-tank remains, These landmines and the remains of weapons erupt/explode thereby causing a lot of causality death and injuries. For example a disaster happened 14 December 2009. A family lost their six children when a landmine exploded near their house where the children were playing around. Below are some photos portraying children playing on anti-tank remains. This incident sometimes happens and is a major challenge to district.

On Monday 26 May 2014 at 10 am local time accident of land mine fuse occurred in balanbale Town  . Three children were playing small quarry near balanbale women office group, then they found a fuse/starter of TM 57 land -mine they started knocking and the item exploded.   Two  children inside the hole, two of them slight injured while   other one   was seriously wounded  on his head and died.

 

Balanbale Victim

 

School Children Watching Incident Site


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