Sending Mixed Messages to Darfur’s Children

Local shops are selling cigarette lighters that look remarkably like real hand grenades and are sending an unfortunately dangerous message to the children of Darfur.

By Leonie M. Barnes (Programme Manager for the Ordnance Disposal Office in UNAMID)

Recently, members from the Ordnance Disposal Office, a substantive component of UNAMID that deals with explosive remnants of war (ERW), discovered that shops in Darfur are selling cigarette lighters that look like hand grenades. Apparently these lighters are selling well. Unfortunately, in addition to selling cigarette lighters, these shops are selling complacency because when dangerous items are transformed into playthings, some of the dangers such items pose in real life get lost.

In Darfur, since the time the United Nations and other organisations began collecting information, the number of deaths and injuries from accidents involving ERW have reached 200. Children, especially young boys, suffer the most. ERW, such as hand grenades, mortars and fuses, contain explosives that can fragment with a large lethality radius. At least two incidents in the past 12 months are specifically linked to hand grenades. In the past six months alone, 14 children have been killed or injured by ERW. Last December, a 2-year-old girl was killed and three boys were injured when they played with a hand grenade.

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Read the full article in the September issue of Voices of Darfur. Download the magazine (PDF) here.