United Nations, Somalia, 2013: A female member of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team brushes sand off of a mortar shell during a demonstration held by UNMAS in Mogadishu, Somalia. Photo: UN Photo/Tobin Jones
The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) was established in 1997 to rid the world of mines and un-exploded ordinance. The agency is the UN’s Hurt Locker, running operations in conflict and post conflict zones around the world. These photos are powerful testimony to the danger and necessity of their work.
United Nations, Somalia, 2013: A female member of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team brushes sand off of a mortar shell during a demonstration held by UNMAS in Mogadishu, Somalia. Photo: UN Photo/Tobin Jones
United Nations Mission in Haiti and UN specialists demolish out of date ordnance in an unpopulated area outside of the capital Port au Prince.
Photo Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH
Mohammed Samir Haj Moussa
Mine Action Team Exhibition — International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, 4 April 2011
Sudan, 2011: An all female demining team in action in South Sudan. The Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) female demining team demonstrates how women are as effective as their male counterparts in dealing with the legacy of landmines from Sudan’s civil war. Since 2005, mine action operations have opened up over 44,000 kilometers of roads across Sudan.
@ Elena Rice / UNMAO
United Nations, Cote d’Ivoire, 2013: The National Commission of Small Arms and Light Weapons of Côte d’Ivoire (COMNAT-CI), in collaboration with UNMAS and development partners, held a ceremony in the Yopougon district of the country’s main city, Abidjan, at which small arms and light weapons were set alight and destroyed.
The pyre of light weapons being set alight.
United Nations Photo/Basile Zoma
