AFGHANISTAN – A GLANCE AT THE UNPLEASANT FRIGHTS OF EXTANT IEDs By Shafi Ullah (Ahmadzai) Head of Quality Management, Directorate of Mine Action Coordination (DMAC

AFGHANISTAN – A GLANCE AT THE UNPLEASANT FRIGHTS OF EXTANT IEDs

By Shafi Ullah (Ahmadzai) - Head of Quality Management, Directorate of Mine Action Coordination (DMAC)

BIRTH OF A NEW ADVERSARY

Afghanistan, in its battle against explosive ordnance, remains at the brink of uncertainty since it first started responding to the explosive ordnance contamination in 1989. Over the decades, the mine action programme of Afghanistan has continued to grapple with legacy contamination1 and continual littering of explosive ordnance stemming from ongoing conflicts. The programme, albeit faced with backbreaking challenges of access, several parties at conflict, and new contaminations, has managed to succeed in minimizing civilian casualties from the legacy contamination. It has, however, been introduced to the new, alarming challenge of improvised mines, the largest contributor to civilian casualties currently.

The improvised explosive device (IED), also called improvised mine, was first used in Afghanistan back in 2008 by the anti-government elements (AGEs). It was, at the time, a new and unique tool availed to gain a strategic advantage in clashes between armed forces of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GoIRA) and AGEs. The geographical awareness aided the AGEs in masking and strategically placing the IEDs to deter movement and passively attack military convoys. As a result, they were widely planted on roadsides earning them the name minehaye kinaar’e jaada2 initially, meaning roadside mines.

1 Pre 2001 contamination resulting from the Soviet invasion. 2 Dari term for roadside mines.

While the legacy explosive ordnance is relatively easier to identify by the affected populations when exposed, the IEDs are made from usual items making them extremely difficult to recognize. This puts forward a threat that blends naturally with everyday objects. It is the primary reason many fail to notice the underlying dangers of IEDs masked as canisters, stones, pressure cookers etc. As a result, the casualty rates have risen dramatically since 2008, the dark year when the IED was first used in Afghanistan.

FROM BATTLEFIELDS TO RESIDENTIAL SPACES

The IEDs were easy and cheap to make and the materials required widely available; as a result, the use of IEDs quickly gained pace as it continued to cause significant damage from a distance, restricted movement, and proved near impossible to trace. With it, the motive of using it in battlefields also evolved as the improvised mine found its way to places it does not belong i.e. inside cities where innocent civilians outnumber military presence significantly. The voices of affected populations somehow seem lost in the soul wrenching echoes of never - ending explosions. The magnetic IED has provided the decades long terror with wheels, as it can easily attach to vehicles assisting the AGEs to conduct targeted killings.

Figure 1: Casualty numbers during 2008-2020. 3

Often, the IEDs fail to attract the intended targets and are triggered by innocent civilians – the civilian casualty rates continue to expose this stark yet gloomy reality. Data from the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA)4 portray the spike in casualties caused by IEDs; during the years 2005-2008, the total casualties recorded are 2,631 with a monthly casualty rate of 54.81 – during the period of 2008-2020, the total casualties recorded stand at 19,004 (7,903 from IEDs) with a monthly casualty rate of 122.61 individuals. This glaring increase becomes more significant when the clearance and risk education efforts of the MAPA are considered. While the programme has succeeded in reducing casualty rates of legacy contamination down to less than two percent, IEDs continue to mount a massive challenge as the rationale behind using it in public spaces still remains unexplored. Its impact is, however, glaring back from the blood-stained canvas of humanity, riddled with extreme violence.

A testament to the growing menace of IEDs is the number of casualties from a single accident when coupled with other types of attacks; in May 2019, Kabul city witnessed gruesome violence where an IED explosion set the stage for a complex attack resulting in 253 casualties, 95 of which did not get to see the light of day anymore. This quickly became a new approach in the merciless chain of targeted attacks where an IED would remove the obstacles or act as a source of distraction; later that month, on 28th May 2019, another complex attack was launched through an IED explosion resulting in 70 casualties, 20 of whom were killed.

Figure 2: A vehicle borne IED coupled with a complex attack killed 95 while injuring a massive 158 innocent civilians.

3 ERW: Explosive remnants of war. 4 Accessed on January 5, 2021.

ABANDONED YET MENACING

The policy of the Mine Action Programme of Afghanistan is not to deal with active IEDs, which is in line with the humanitarian principles. The MAPA defines abandoned improvised mines (AIMs) as pressure activated victim operated IEDs located in areas that are not under active conflict. These abandoned improvised mines do not deteriorate in their intended functionality, continuing to pose an identical threat to the active IEDs. The AIMs, therefore, continue to be triggered by innocent civilians

who are ignorant of their presence and willful mischief by design. The AIMs, similar to the explosive remnants of war, carry more risk of accidents, since the affected populations have no clue of their existence following a prolonged ceasefire.

MAPA’S RESPONSE

While the military forces of GoIRA are primarily responsible for responding to active IED threats, the classification into active and abandoned enabled MAPA to start responding to the problem. Through extensive and persistent advocacy efforts, MAPA was able to convince parties at conflict that the abandoned IEDs served no military purpose but continued to take innocent lives.

To launch its response, the MAPA started with risk education as it helped raise awareness among a larger segment, responding to the IED threat in general. New messages that aimed to uncover the ground signs helping the affected populations to identify probable presence of AIMs were developed. These messages were then embedded in the standard explosive ordnance risk education (EORE) materials kit. New materials, including billboards, radio spots, and AIM posters, were also developed to provide visual cues and suggest safe behavior, especially while travelling and finding usual items in unusual places/ unusual items in usual places. In line with the behavior change communication model, the materials were field tested and piloted to ensure their intended effectiveness. This has helped the MAPA to reach a wider audience and ensure the affected populations are aware of the ground signs and risks posed by the improvised mines.

The nature and intended use of improvised mines make it difficult to predict the IED threat and is, therefore, extremely difficult to respond to proactively and with existing Figure 3: AIM posters highlighting usual ground signs of IEDs.

means. The MAPA, therefore, focused on establishing standards of its response to the problem and is the first mine action programme to develop its national standards on improvised mines.

This allowed the programme to safely engage with AIMs ensuring consistent quality in all its efforts. The MAPA started to identify the scale of the problem through non-technical survey (NTS) in areas where improvised mines are present and no active conflict is taking place. This initial survey found that 553 hazards have contaminated an area of 51,236,570 m2 out of which the MAPA has managed to clear 8,393,780 m2 and released it back to the communities for their intended use. A total of 42,842,790 m2 known area is still contaminated by AIMs, which can increase with more survey interventions.

Now that the scale of the problem was partially identified, the MAPA needed to build the capacity of both the national authority and the implementing partners in survey and clearance of AIMs. After extensive and persistent advocacy, the programme was able to acquire funding for a comprehensive training and small-scale equipment. The three months long AIM survey and clearance training course was launched in July of 2020. The training aimed to provide AIM response capacity to the MAPA through basic and advance AIM survey courses, basic, intermediary, and advance AIM clearance courses, and training of trainers (ToT) concerning AIM clearance. The ToT ensures sustainable capacity within MAPA for the coming years.

The MAPA also received small-scale equipment to assist the expansion of its training efforts and the implementing partners to start survey and clearance operations. The following equipment and their associated accessories were part of the training package and will be used for land release of AIMs:

VMR3 Minehound dual sensor detector: the detector comes with certain valuable attributes and through its ground-penetrating radar (GPR), it can help detect IEDs.

VR1 Wirehound cable detector: suitable for detection of IEDs as this detector can identify wires and cables.

THE WAY FORWARD

Now that the programme has been equipped with the necessary knowledge and equipment, the MAPA aims to continue building its capacity in response to the growing problem of AIMs. To do so, all implementing partners are currently developing their standard operating procedures (SOPs) which will be reviewed and approved by the national authority (directorate of mine action coordination). The implementing partners are also being assisted in preparing their training areas and delivering the AIM survey and clearance training. 2021 will see the first phase of humanitarian demining response to AIMs – this will leave a significant footprint in the holistic battle against explosive ordnance. The non-technical survey of AIM hazards will continue to be prioritized in order to identify contaminated areas currently not known. Land release of AIMs will be a top priority for the MAPA for the coming years. ■

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shafi Ullah (Ahmadzai) leads the quality management department at the directorate of mine action coordination (DMAC), national authority on mine action in Afghanistan. He is a humanitarian with noticeable contributions to the mine action in Afghanistan. In his current capacity, Shafi chairs the Afghanistan mine action standards’ (AMAS) review board, amends AMAS as needed, drafts concept notes and proposals, leads monitoring and evaluations concerning mine action in Afghanistan, and represents Afghanistan in international mine action standards’ review board.

He has a master’s degree in strategic marketing from University of Wollongong and has authored ‘A Tear From the Sand’, a published novella.