12.07.11
On the eve of South Sudan’s Independence, Mr. Soren Pind, the Danish Development Cooperation Minister, visited South Sudan and a Danish Demining Group project site in the country. On 9 July 2011, South Sudan became the world’s 193rd nation state following a 55-year struggle for freedom.
The Minister, who was accompanied by Danish Ambassador Pernille Kardel, visited the southern town of Yei on his way to Juba where he represented Denmark in the official Independence celebrations.
Arriving by air from Uganda, where the Minister also met with Danish Demining Group staff, Minister Pind was briefed by officials from UNHCR and the Danish Demining Group before visiting a community to experience the removal of unexploded ordnance from farmers’ fields and conducting of mine risk education. He witnessed a mine risk education demonstration in the local primary school followed by a visit to a small farm belonging to local chief, Alexander Daniel, who explained how the demining and clearance efforts had enabled him to plant crops again on his family’s land. Previously, his farming activities had been constrained by the widespread presence of cluster bombs dropped during the civil war.