Summary findings

·         There was a decline in availability of services across all pillars of victim assistance in 2013.

·         Since victim assistance projects funded through the UN closed in June 2012, economic inclusion opportunities for mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) survivors and other persons with disabilities have decreased significantly.

·         Mainstream economic inclusion programs should be adapted to include survivors and persons with disabilities, and programs should be expanded in line with significant unmet needs.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of South Sudan is responsible for a significant number of landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other ERW who are in need. South Sudan has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty.

Casualties Overview

In 2013, the Monitor identified 46 mine/ERW casualties in South Sudan.[1] All casualties were civilians. Children constituted 75% of all casualties for whom the age was known (33 of 44) and boys made up the single largest casualty group (25 of 44, or 57%).[2] At least three casualties were women.[3] There were no casualties among deminers in 2013.

The 46 casualties identified in 2013 were more than double the 22 casualties reported in 2012, but a significant decrease compared with 206 mine/ERW casualties in 2011.[4] South Sudan attributed the decreased number of casualties as compared with 2011 to the greater role played by mine risk education and increased marking of surveyed suspected hazard areas.[5] The high number of casualties in 2011 was specifically attributed to the movement of people (affected by conflicts in South Kordofan state and Abyei in Sudan) into South Sudan and also by the laying of new mines near South Sudan’s northern border.[6] In addition, it was believed that not all incidents in 2012 and 2013 were reported or identified due to poor communications infrastructure, ongoing armed conflict and related movements of populations within the country.[7]

A total of 4,786 mine/ERW casualties (1,330 people killed; 3,456 injured) were reported in South Sudan from 1964 through the end of December 2013.[8]

Cluster munition casualties

As of December 2013, 87 casualties from munitions were reported in South Sudan. Of the total, 71 casualties were caused by unexploded submunitions. A single unexploded submunition incident that occurred in Juba in 2013 caused six casualties, among them four children who were killed.[9] The remaining 65 unexploded submunition casualties all occurred in 2009 or before.[10] Another 16 casualties which occurred during cluster munition strikes in South Sudan have been reported.[11]

Victim Assistance

As of the end of 2013, 3,456 mine/ERW survivors were identified in South Sudan.[12] In 2011, the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare (MGCSW) estimated that there were a total of some 50,000 mine/ERW victims, including survivors, their families, and the immediate family members of people killed.[13]

Victim assistance since 1999[14]

As a result of decades of conflict, since 1999 mine/ERW survivors in South Sudan have lacked basic services of all kinds. The limited services available have been almost entirely provided by international organizations. Throughout the period, emergency medical care has been inadequate to address the needs of mine/ERW survivors and others wounded as a result of the armed conflict, a situation worsened by the high number of casualties caused by the outbreak of violence at the end of 2013. Ongoing medical care reaches just a fraction of the population.

Despite the very challenging security situation, there have been some improvements in the availability of physical rehabilitation for mine/ERW survivors. In 1999, South Sudan had just one physical rehabilitation center, in the capital Juba. In 2003, an additional rehabilitation center at the Rumbek Regional Hospital was opened with support from an international organization. By the end of 2010, the regional government assumed full management of the center. In 2008, the ICRC introduced a physical rehabilitation training program at the Juba rehabilitation center and by 2009 it had been upgraded to a Rehabilitation Referral Center.

From 1999, there were little to no economic inclusion initiatives for mine/ERW survivors, a situation that improved somewhat with increased international funding for victim assistance from 2007 to mid-2012. These programs were implemented by national organizations, including disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs), and coordinated by the national mine action center with support from the UN within the framework of the National Victim Assistance Strategic Framework 2007–2011. However, these programs were insufficient to meet demand and they ended in mid-2012 when international funding ceased. Psychological support for mine/ERW survivors is entirely absent in South Sudan.

In June 2012, the government of South Sudan approved the South Sudan National Mine Action Strategic Plan 2012–2016, which included victim assistance. The Victim Assistance Coordination Group changed its name to the Victim Assistance and Disability Working Group and steps were taken to integrate victim assistance and disability into the work of all relevant government ministries.

Victim assistance in 2013

In 2013, there was limited to no progress identified toward the victim assistance objectives of South Sudan’s Mine Action Strategic Plan. The South Sudan Landmine Victims Association (SSLMVA) reported a decline in availability of services across all pillars of victim assistance in 2013.[15] As in previous years, a lack of transportation, the cost of transportation where it existed, insecurity including attacks on healthcare centers, and poor road infrastructure proved to be the greatest obstacles to accessing all services for survivors.[16] Funding for nearly all victim assistance projects supported through the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) had ceased in 2012.[17]

Assessing victim assistance needs

No assessments of the needs of survivors were carried out by the government of South Sudan in 2013. Both Handicap International (HI) and the SSLMVA carried out surveys that included landmine survivors in 2013.

In 2013, HI surveyed persons with disabilities and landmine survivors living in Yei County. The survey also included members of the community who did not have disabilities as a control sample. The survey assessed the socio-economic context of its 644 respondents, their needs and challenges, the scope and gaps of available resources or services for respondents, and compared their status and vulnerability to that of the rest of the population. The purpose of the survey was to inform HI’s victim assistance program in this county of South Sudan.[18] HI shared information about survivors and their needs for assistance with the UN Mine Action Cluster’s sub-cluster on victim assistance in 2013.[19]

In 2013 and into 2014, SSLMVA carried out an ongoing survey of the needs of its members, including family members of mine victims and affected communities, with the aim of improving the effectiveness of service provision. The organization identified the need for increased funding to expand the survey throughout the country.[20]

Previously, needs assessments had been carried out in other areas of the country by the National Mine Action Authority (NMAA) and the MGCSW, with support from the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre (UNMACC) and by the South Sudan Disabled Persons Association (SSDPA). Information from survey in Wau, Torit, and Bor was used to develop a national disability policy.[21] Data collected in Juba and in Upper Nile state in October and November 2010 were included in the national casualty database, maintained by the UNMACC.[22] The SSDPA needs assessment in Juba collected data on 238 survivors. The SSDPA collected data on 1,188 survivors in Upper Nile state.[23]

Victim assistance coordination[24]

In 2013, the Victim Assistance and Disability Working Group continued to hold monthly meetings, chaired by the MGCSW and co-chaired by the NMAA’s director of victim assistance.[25] Participants included government ministries, DPOs, SSLMVA, NGO service providers, UNMAS, the ICRC and other stakeholders.[26]

Meetings were used to develop the victim assistance component of the UN mine action cluster strategy for 2014–2016;[27] in this strategy, the priority activities for victim assistance were to be a focus on community awareness and provision or development of:

·         Basic rehabilitation services;

·         Psychosocial support;

·         Income-generating activities;

·         Referral systems.

The strategy proposes that the subcluster “prioritize states where survivor assistance needs are of highest concern, including Central Equatoria, Jonglei, Unity.”[28]

Participants also used meetings to share information about activities implemented, avoid overlap in efforts, and refer survivors in need of assistance.[29] According to the SSLMVA, the meetings were also an opportunity to share information about resources needed for various organizations’ activities.[30] The VADWG also appointed focal points within government ministries and commissions to mainstream victim assistance and disability issues throughout government structures. In 2013, at least 10 focal points had been appointed.[31]

In 2013, no progress was made toward the first two victim assistance objectives of the Mine Action Strategic Plan 2012–2016. Implementing partners shared progress toward the third objective during monthly VADWG meetings.[32] The three victim assistance objectives were:

·         Establish an information system for persons with disabilities to provide reliable, systematic, and comprehensive information on persons with disabilities, including landmine and ERW victims;

·         Accede to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by the end of 2013[33] and adopt the necessary national laws to protect the rights of landmine/ERW survivors and persons with disabilities;

·         Ensure equal access to rehabilitation, psychosocial (including peer support) and socio-economic inclusion services for all landmine and ERW victims, as well as women, girls, boys, and men with disabilities.[34]

The limited progress toward the implementation of the strategic plan was attributed to the decrease in donor funds for victim assistance activities.[35] One source also saw it as being due to the “constant lack of transparency amongst the national NGOs that implemented VA [victim assistance] projects in past.”[36]

The MGCSW, with support from HI, held quarterly disability coordination meetings in Yei County, inviting representatives of UNMACC, the Union of Persons with Disabilities (UPD), the Landmine Survivor Association (LSA), War Wounded Hero (WWH, an organization of disabled veterans), and other relevant disability-related stakeholders. Generally, these meetings were poorly attended.[37]

Coordination between the MGCSW and the NMAC was seen to be limited due to a lack of resources that limited the activity of both entities.[38]

South Sudan reported on mine/ERW casualties and progress and challenges for victim assistance through the submission of its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for 2013.[39] It did not make a statement at the Thirteen Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in December 2013 in Geneva or at the Third Review Conference in Maputo, Mozambique in June 2014.

Inclusion and participation in victim assistance

Representatives of the SSLMVA and other organizations of persons with disabilities were included in the monthly meetings of the VADWG. Survivors and their representative organizations participated in the development of the draft national disability policy and in the review of the South Sudanese constitution.[40] HI facilitated workshops in Yei County to collect feedback from UPD, LSA, and WWH to contribute towards the development of the national disability policy. All three groups were very actively represented in these workshops.[41]

Due to a lack of funds, the SSLMVA was largely inactive in regards to the provision of direct assistance to mine/ERW survivors in 2013;[42] however, the association collected information about the needs of survivors.[43]

The SSLMVA did coordinate with other DPOs through the VADWG[44] though this coordination was limited in 2013.[45]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[46]

Emergency and continuing medical care

In 2013, attacks on health facilities and threats against medical personnel narrowed the population’s already limited access to healthcare. When security conditions allowed, the ICRC assisted eight hospitals in government- and opposition-controlled territory to respond to the influx of armed conflict casualties, including landmine/ERW survivors.[47] Among survivors and other persons with disabilities surveyed by HI who were in need of disability-related surgery, the main reasons given for the lack of access to these services were cost and the lack of access where they lived.[48]

Physical Rehabilitation including prosthetics

In 2013, the SSLMVA reported a decrease in the availability of physical rehabilitation for survivors.[49] The overall rehabilitation capacity in the country was insufficient to meet the demand for these services, with many survivors either unaware of rehabilitation services or unable to access the two available centers because of their distance from their homes.[50] HI began to develop the rehabilitation capacity at the Yei County hospital, training medical professionals and carrying out home visits to survivors and other persons with disabilities in Yei to assess their rehabilitation needs. HI also began to provide financial assistance and refer beneficiaries to rehabilitation services at the national Rehabilitation Reference Center in Juba.[51]

The ICRC sustained its support for the Reference Center in Juba, for South Sudan’s other rehabilitation center in Rumbek, and also for the rehabilitation unit in Wau in northwestern South Sudan that is staffed by ICRC rehabilitation specialists and which operated one week of every month. The number of mine survivors receiving prosthetic services through ICRC-supported centers was exactly the same in 2013 as compared with 2012. Overall, production of prosthetics increased by 50%.[52]

The Italian NGO OVCI continued to work to increase services to children with disabilities, including landmine survivors, through the USURATUNA Center in Juba. It also continued to develop community-based rehabilitation in districts near Juba.[53] However, these gains were somewhat offset by the loss of trained rehabilitation professionals who left their jobs, leaving the centers understaffed and causing declines in the production of prosthetics and mobility devices.[54]

Economic Inclusion

In June 2012, several projects that focused on vocational training and income-generating activities implemented by local NGOs (including survivor associations and DPOs) targeting survivors[55] were closed when the funding available through UNMAS ended, significantly reducing economic inclusion opportunities for mine/ERW survivors.[56] As of the first quarter of 2014, such opportunities remained very limited compared with the demand for these programs and the number of survivors and other persons with disabilities in need of work and employment.[57] In 2013, HI began to provide training in small business skills to mine/ERW survivors and other persons with disabilities in Yei County.[58]

The South Sudan National Commission for War Disabled, Widows and Orphans provided training and income-generating support to a limited number of people who were disabled due to armed conflict.[59]

Psychological support and social inclusion

No change was identified in the availability or quality of psychological support in 2013; available facilities and trained professionals were very limited.[60] Some survivor associations and DPOs offered peer support to their members.[61]

There was an increase in sports opportunities for persons with disabilities with the donation of wheelchairs for wheelchair basketball by the ICRC.[62] Disabled sports activities were only available in Juba.[63]

Laws and Policies

The MGCSW began developing a national disability policy in 2011[64] that was scheduled to be reviewed by the cabinet in late December 2013; however, the outbreak of armed conflict on 15 December caused an indefinite delay.[65] South Sudan reported that the development of the policy was pending the ratification of the CRPD, planned for 2014.[66]

HI constructed ramps to make public buildings and relevant services accessible as part of their victim assistance project in Yei County.[67] There were no other reported improvements in 2013 to make the physical environment more accessible for mine/ERW survivors and other persons with disabilities.[68]

Military veterans wounded in armed conflict had access to benefits that were not available to civilian victims of armed conflict, including mine/ERW victims.[69]

As of 1 August 2014, South Sudan had not signed the CRPD.