STORY: SOMALIA - EXPLOSIVES TRT:4:12 SOURCE: AU/UN IST RESTRICTIONS: This media asset is free for editorial broadcast,

print, online and radio use. It is not to be sold on and is restricted for other purposes. All enquiries to news@auunist.org CREDIT REQUIRED: AU/UN IST LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS DATELINE: MAY 9, 2013 SHOTLIST 1. Wide shot, Mogadishu beach front 2. Med shot, AMISOM military vehicles 3. Close up, military truck carrying unexploded ordnance (UXO) 4. Med shot, AMISOM soldiers digging in the sand 5. Close up, sand being dug up 6. Wide shot, soldiers offloading UXOs 7. Med shot, soldiers removing rockets from the back of the truck 8. Med shot, AMISOM soldiers offloading unexploded ordnance 9. Wide shot, UXOs displayed on the ground 10. Close up, mortar on the ground 11. Med shot, UXOs on the ground 12. Close up, more UXOs 13. Med shot, new and old UXOs 14. SOUNDBITE (English) Colonel Salvator Niyongoma, Information Officer, AMISOM: These IEDs, there are a lot of ammunition in this country. He have to make very hard work to collect, destroy it and to sensitise the citizens to know that the IED is very dangerous for the life and for people who live in this country. 15. Wide shot, AMISOM soldier placing the UXOs in the dug up holes 16. Med shot, soldier putting UXO into the hole 17. Med shot, soldiers passing UXO to another soldier 18. Wide shot, UXO being buried for detonation 19. SOUNDBITE (English) Private James Kasekende, Team Leader, AMISOM: It is very important to destroy these things, because you know if they are like that, these guys, we call them al Shabaab, they can pick them, they get the explosives in them, then they use them to make homemade bomb which they can use to target our convoys and their fellow Somalis, so that why we have to demolish them. To make sure that the whole of Somalia is free of these things. 20. Med shot, AMISOM soldier laying plastic explosives on the UXO

21. Close up, plastic explosives being placed in detonation pit 22. Med shot, soldier rigging the explosives 23. Close up, explosives 24. Med shot, soldier placing the detonation cord 25. Wide shot, soldier with detonation cord 26. Close up, soldiers face with reflection in his sunglasses 27. Med shot, soldiers hand on the detonator 28. Med shot, AMISOM soldier pressing the detonator 29. Med shot, explosion going off 30. Wide shot, explosion STORY: A convoy of military vehicles makes its way to a secluded area in the Medina District of Mogadishu. Since the departure of extremist group al Shabaab in 2011, Somalias National Security Forces and their African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) partners, have been collecting and destroying unexploded ordnance (UXOs) from all over the Somali capital. Explosive stockpiles, weapons, ammunition caches and Improvised Explosive Device (IED) abandoned by the besieged al Qaeda-linked group continue to pose grave threats to civilians, government soldiers and AMISOM troops. This is in addition to the detritus of war left after decades of civil conflict. These IEDs, there are a lot of ammunition in this country. He have to make very hard work to collect, destroy it and to sensitise the citizens to know that the IED is very dangerous for the life and for people who live in this country, said Colonel Salvator Niyongoma, the Burundian AMISOM information officer charged with liaising with the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS). Since its inception in Somalia, UNMAS has trained over 1,000 Somali police, AMISOM and humanitarian staff, not only in IED detection, removal, counter-IED operations and medical procedures but in disposal as well. Private James Kasekende - of the Ugandan contingent of AMISOM - was one of the trainees and is now a Explosive Ordnance Team (EOD) leader. It is very important to destroy these things, because you know if they are like that, these guys, we call them al Shabaab, they can pick them, they get the explosives in them, then they use them to make homemade bomb which they can use to target our convoys and their fellow Somalis, so that why we have to demolish them. To make sure that the whole of Somalia is free of these things, Kasekende said.

Kasekende and his team, alongside their Burundian counterparts and UNMAS mentors, endeavor to demolish a stockpile of UXOs each week. They detonated about 75 kilograms of explosives on this outing under strict safety guidelines that are closely coordinated with local government officials. According to UNMAS, nearly every community in south-central Somalia suffers from a degree of Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) contamination and few have the support or capacity to deal with these threats. The UN department reports that more than 15,000 items of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) were safely destroyed. ENDS.