On 24 April, the Handicap International team in Lebanon restored two plots of cleared land to villagers from Toula, in the district of Batroun as part of a demining project launched 20 months earlier with the support of the European Union and the French Development Agency. More than 60,000 sq.m. of land were manually cleared by deminers, who advanced slowly, metre by metre, to avoid exposing themselves to danger in the mountainous terrain of North Lebanon where anti-personnel mines and explosive remnants of war dating from the civil war have posed a threat to the local population for more than 30 years.
 
The work performed by Handicap International, the only humanitarian demining operator in the region, has been welcomed with relief by the populations at risk from these weapons. The project’s dual aim - reducing the threat to inhabitants and improving the socio-economic development of the region - immediately gained the support of the local population. Eliminating the danger of mines will benefit 33,000 people living in the region. Plans are already being made to use this land, now free of danger, to grow olives and restore or build new facilities. Some projects were launched in strategic areas as soon as the land had been decontaminated, including the widening of a road, the erection of electric pylons and the completion of a bridge. Mission accomplished for the twelve brave deminers trained and managed by Handicap International!
 
Handicap International is continuing its demining activities in North Lebanon and aims to clear all potentially dangerous sites earmarked as priorities by the Lebanese National Demining Centre in the district of Batroun. Many years of work still lie ahead. Lebanon has made an international commitment to demine its territory by 2020.

What was your first impression when you arrived in Brazzaville?
Devastation. Every house had been flattened within a 300-metre radius of the explosions. We were walking among ruins. The further away we got, the less damage there was, but some munitions landed up to 3 km from the dumps. People fishing on the Congo River were even dragging them up in their nets. Over 200 people are believed to have been killed, 2,300 injured and 14,000 made homeless.
 
What happened exactly?
This disaster, and its impact on local residents, was due to a combination of factors. It started with a fire caused by a short circuit. That detonated the first weapons dump and a van filled with 12 tonnes of quarry explosives. This detonation set off an explosion in the second dump, then a third. The location of these dumps in the city center, surrounded by families living close to the military bases, was a big problem. This type of accident suggests that the munitions and weapons dumps did not comply with safety regulations. This is why all of these risks, added together, led to the disaster of 4 March.
 
What did your mission entail?
The United Nations sent its first expert on 6 March and we arrived on 9 March. By 10 March, our three teams were operational in the field, tasked with identifying munitions to reduce the risks posed by their presence and to organize their destruction. We were able to call on the help of three African specialists in the detection of explosive devices from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, who have worked alongside Handicap International for more than 10 years, a nurse and a team of 15 Congolese soldiers made available by the government. Relying on local skills and resources was one of the specific features of our actions on the ground. In fact, the operations coordinator who replaced me is from Mauritania.
 
At what stage is Handicap International’s interventiont?
The initial detection and risk reduction stage has been completed. We worked in the East sector of the damaged area for over a month. At the request of the local population (the government set up a free helpline) or as a result of our own searches, we performed 360 interventions, destroyed 1,834 devices and secured 30,138 sq.m. of residential areas. This stage has now been completed. Other humanitarian operators and international agencies took charge of the other sectors under UN supervision. Our teams are now working on a pilot project which we plan to roll out to the whole area. It focuses on “intelligently” clearing the ruins. Our teams sort the rubble by hand and recover any munitions still hidden under the debris. As they do so, they sort the debris and separate it into recyclable waste (iron, breeze blocks, wood, etc.), non-recyclable materials (stones), furniture and household remains. Everything that can be reused is offered to the local population, while the non-recyclable waste is sent to sites for destruction or landfilling. Once again, Congolese soldiers were made available to Handicap International to complete this huge task.
 
What conclusions have you drawn from this mission?
The incredible responsiveness of Handicap International, to start with. We were among the first to start work in the field, when the residents were still standing about in the ruins, putting themselves in danger, but not knowing what to do. Second, our ability to call on the services of African staff made it a lot easier to communicate with the Congolese people and the country’s authorities. Next, our innovative approach to clearing the rubble: I’ve known situations in which all of the debris was just piled up in huge waste mountains of munitions, rubble and who knows what else. We came up with a solution that guaranteed people’s safety and enabled us to salvage and recycle the waste. Lastly but probably most important is the vital need to take preventive action with the authorities to avoid a repeat of these disasters, by performing audits of storage conditions and available devices, sorting the equipment and providing advice on how to manage these factors.
 

“I arrived in Brazzaville a couple of weeks ago to take over from an expatriate staff member who had set up the mission in aid of the injured,” explains Domenjoud. “The disaster happened over a month and a half ago, but a lot of people still need our help. The hospitals treated the injured straight after the disaster, but they were discharged very quickly and told to go home or to a camp.”

To search for injured people living in the camps, or more often with host families, Handicap International decided to set up three mobile teams of local staff. “The aim is to identify people who need follow-up care and treatment and to give them immediate assistance when possible, before referring them to appropriate medical facilities,” explains Domenjoud. “I accompany the mobile teams and visit people with injuries to show them how to avoid infections (by treating wounds) and to prevent disabilities (by performing limb exercises). The mobile teams return to see the injured at a later date and provide them with follow-up care. We identify isolated people who are unable to move around to make sure they get treated. It’s important no one gets left out.

“As well as treating wounds, Handicap international provides basic rehabilitation care to avoid limb sequelae following long periods of immobility. (Limb sequelae is a progression, in this case a negative progression, of a pattern of injury or disease. Without rehab, limbs can deteriorate, becoming stiff and immobile,  weak, and prone to further deterioration.) It’s also important to work on the stumps of amputees to prepare them for orthopedic fitting in a Congolese center. We also make sure the names of the injured are recorded when they return to hospital so that we can find them again and give them the care they need.

“The people we identify are usually very poor and living in very precarious conditions. Their situation has been made worse by the disaster, but they don’t lose hope, like this eight-year old girl, amputated above the elbow after the explosions. She is living with a host family now because her mother was injured too, along with another member of her family. Despite all this, the girl managed to keep her spirits high. You felt she was the strongest one of all. She fought to survive and was already dressing herself, despite losing her arm.

“We also hand out walking aids, such as walking sticks, walking frames and wheelchairs,” Domenjoud adds. “Just a few days ago, for example, we met a woman, disabled from birth, who had been extremely shocked by the accident. She had had to crawl around up until that point. Thanks to our project, she now uses a wheelchair. She is finally self-reliant. For people with injuries, or people who have always been disabled, being able to move around and live without help from friends and family, I can tell you, it makes all the difference.”

The mission still has a few weeks to run — enough time for the organization’s teams to follow-up people with injuries and the most isolated people, and to ensure that they continue to receive treatment in local health facilities. In order to secure residential areas, Handicap International has also sent a team into the field to help identify unexploded ordnance blown across residential areas by the explosions.

Mohamed is a 13-year-old boy from Benghazi, Libya. He has a brother and three sisters. On Monday March 21, 2011, Mohamed was playing football with his friend in front of his apartment block when he saw a shiny golden metal object next to a tree. On his way up to his family's apartment, Mohamed started hitting it against the wall. The object was a submunition. It exploded and fragments were scattered everywhere. He was hit in the hand and face, and lost several fingers.

Mohamed is deeply affected by this tragedy. Today, he attends physical therapy to rehabilitate his hand and receives psychological support. He is slowly getting better. Libyan children like Mohamed are the main victims of the weapons left behind by adults. Mohamed did not know the danger that such weapons represent. Like many children, he wanted to play with something that seemed fun and harmless.

Since March 2011, Handicap International has worked to teach Libyans the life-threatening risks associated with mines and explosive remnants of war. To date, the organization has distributed around 60,000 leaflets to vulnerable communities and displayed 5,000 posters in towns and cities contaminated by these weapons. Handicap International staff and volunteers have dispersed 20,000 children's textbooks, usually during risk education sessions in schools. Using simple images that everyone can understand, these books demonstrate the basic safety measures to take when faced with explosive remnants of war. Games offer a fun and educational way of teaching children about the threats they face. A safety song was also composed for the kids. Broadcast on radio stations across Libya, it is now a national hit. Around 50,000 people have attended Handicap International risk education sessions, including at least 20,000 children.