Sudan

About

Since 2002, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), has worked to mitigate explosive ordnance (EO) threats in Sudan. In December 2023, the Government of Sudan reiterated its request to UNMAS to continue providing humanitarian mine action support to the people of Sudan.. The ongoing conflict that broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has deepened Sudan’s humanitarian crisis, displacing over 11 million people (IOM 2025), and driving famine or famine-like conditions in multiple areas.The widespread and indiscriminate use of explosive weapons has created extensive new layers of EO contamination. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data reported 9,823 conflict events that likely led to EO contamination between April 2023 and December 2025, in addition to 34 square kilometers of legacy contamination from previous conflicts over past decades. EO threatens civilian lives, obstructs their access to basic services and livelihood opportunities, damages critical infrastructure and humanitarian facilities, and causes psychological harm, with differentiated impacts by age and gender–underscoring the urgent need for mine action.

Millions of civilians are returning home as lines of control shift, often moving into conflict-affected areas before clearance efforts begin. With urban EO threats new to the conflict, many returnees are unaware of the risks when accessing services or livelihoods. Ongoing hostilities continue to drive significant displacement into areas likely contaminated with EO, putting returnees and internally displaced people at risk of injury or death. Contaminated roads, schools, homes and medical facilities threaten lives and hinder access to services and aid. UNMAS is conducting mine action activities in line with humanitarian and peacebuilding needs.

Impact

Since 15 April 2023, UNMAS Sudan has

• Reached 270,723 people with life-saving emergency Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (71,048 girls, 65,457 boys, 68,193 women, 66,025 men).
• Removed 10,244 Explosive Ordnance (EO) items across Sudan, including 16 anti-personnel mines, 8 anti-tank mines, 991 unexploded items and over 9,000 small arms ammunitions.
• Surveyed 4,945,362 m² of hazardous areas for EO items in Sudan, mapping contamination and cancelling hazardous areas where possible to release land back for use.
• Released 1,801,113 m² of land, supporting safer movement and livelihood opportunities for the Sudanese population, as well as enabling UN and humanitarian partners to deliver life-saving aid.
• Briefed 2,475 aid workers (701 women, 1,774 men) with EO awareness briefings, supported safe humanitarian operations with technical advice, contamination maps, and supported sector scale up with training opportunities and advised the Sudan Humanitarian Fund on a $4 million mine action allocation enabling the mobilization of four survey and clearance teams and 4 EORE teams in Q4 2025 within the sector.

Activities

UNMAS Sudan reduces the threat of EO to civilians, enables the delivery of humanitarian aid and supports the development of a sustainable, well-coordinated national mine action sector through five core activities. From October to December 2025, UNMAS Sudan has delivered:

1. Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE)

UNMAS conducts risk awareness sessions with civilians, aiming to reduce the risk of injury from mines and unexploded ordnance, promoting behavioural change through public-information campaigns, education, training, and liaison with communities.

UNMAS, with implementing partners, Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and Jasmar Human Security Organization (JASMAR), delivered emergency explosive ordnance risk education across several localities in Khartoum state, delivering sessions to locals nearby minefields, markets, internally-displaced persons, visiting community kitchens, construction, sanitation and airport workers, school children, teachers, and aid workers from NGOs and local authorities.

In Q4 2025, teams responded to call-outs for clearance, informed by attendees of EORE sessions. UNMAS teams rendered Sudan’s largest open-air market safer thanks to a local tea seller who knew how to spot and report EO from a recent EORE session and a local coffee seller near a busy road elsewhere in central Khartoum was able to return to resume her work following an EORE session where she reported suspected EO near her coffee cart. The team’s community liaison officers responded rapidly to the reports, escalating to clearance teams who promptly cleared the items, making Khartoum safer for small businesses thanks to an integrated mine action response.

2. Survey and Clearance

UNMAS conducts humanitarian survey and clearance, including non-technical and technical surveys of land, mapping and minefield marking, as well as clearance of mines and explosive ordnance.

As conflict-affected areas become accessible, survey and clearance of explosive hazards is urgently needed to ensure safe movement, humanitarian access and support recovery. Land release activities continued in Q4 2025. DRC-JASMAR teams cleared areas of Khartoum airport, residential areas, schools, a mosque, a water treatment center, and UN facilities including UNICEF and WFP warehouses in Khartoum as well as UNHAS, UN Women and WHO offices.

Following confirmed reports of 7 minefields with antipersonnel and/or anti-vehicle mines present, teams responded to an EO accident in Bahri and a confirmed minefield in Al-Mugran, providing technical survey and mine clearance in Khartoum state.

Part of their rapid response call-out, DRC-JASMAR responded to requests from the local community through the hotline established by the National Mine Action Center. They removed EO items and made a playground safe, released a farm back to production, and made central Khartoum railway station, a national transport hub, safer for use. Following reports to the national hotline,established by the National Mine Action Center with support and operator training from UNMAS, a brick factory was assessed, EO was removed, and the site was returned to the family. This restored their sole source of income, and with work now resuming, the livelihoods of the surrounding community have also been revived.

In Q4 2025, operational capacity expanded to five survey and clearance teams, with activities to scale up further in Q1 2025 to eight teams.

4. Coordination and Advocacy

Coordination and advocacy enables information-sharing and safe humanitarian access, supporting a principled and prioritized response. Advocacy activities are crucial to raise awareness, mobilize resources, and ensure mine action remains a priority. As cluster-lead agency of the Mine Action Cluster in Sudan, UNMAS led and coordinated the prioritization and planning efforts for the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan and streamlined Mine Action concerns into the El Fasher Operational Response Plan, Interim Cooperation Framework and a Global Protection Alert on the extreme protection risks civilians face in Kordofan region.

5. Information Management

Systematic data collection and mapping of EO hazards are key to supporting the safety and planning of humanitarian operations. This quarter, three explosive ordnance situation reports were published providing state-level contamination maps and EO trend analyses to ensure safety of humanitarians operating in conflict-affected areas.

Funding

UNMAS thanks the following donors for their generous support through the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for assisting Mine Action in Sudan during the year 2025:

The Government of Canada, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, the Central Emergency Response Fund and the United Nations World Food Programme. UNMAS also thanks the Government of Switzerland for the provision of in-kind personnel.

To respond to the increasing mine action needs, the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan shows a funding need of $19 million for Mine Action in 2026 to help 2.3 million target beneficiaries in need and ensure continued delivery of mine action in Sudan.

Beyond urgent humanitarian needs, mine action underpins Sudan’s recovery. Integrated into the Interim Cooperation Framework, mine action is a prerequisite for development. The scale of need is far greater, requiring mine action to be integrated and funded within development programming to enable safe, timely recovery and reconstruction across affected areas.

Data as of December 2025