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Clearance of Unexploded Ordnance Will Enable Rumbek Airstrip to Receive More Relief Aid for Southern Sudan



Rumbek, Sudan
October 12, 2004

The following images depict the small, unpaved airstrip at Rumbek, Sudan, immediately after the clearance of unexploded ordnance around it, in a project supported by the U.S. Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. Presently, the airstrip can handle only small aircraft that are unable to bring in adequate amounts of food and other desperately needed relief aid to Sudanese affected by fighting in the southern part of the country. Now that the unexploded ordnance has been cleared, the United Nations World Food Program will be able to safely improve the runway, thereby enabling much larger transport aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules, to deliver far greater amounts of aid to the region.

(Photos courtesy Matt Murphy, Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement; click for larger image and caption.)

A wrecked twin-engine Royal New Zealand Air Force Andover aircraft at the Rumbek airstrip that suffered catastrophic engine failure after delivering relief supplies.Lengthwise view of the current runway looking due north. Ground at the northern end and beside the airstrip was carefully swept for landmines and unexploded ordnance in order that shrubs and trees can be safely removed to extend and widen the runway.The area immediately at the north end of the runway, now safe from the humanitarian impact of unexploded ordnance, which will be leveled and prepared for the lengthening and widening of the runway.
A road alongside the runway. Two pieces of unexploded ordnance were cleared from the area to the left of the road and the immediate foreground. Besides enabling the safe expansion of the runway, the existing aircraft apron will be widened so that a large four-engine aircraft may safely turn around after it has landed.The flight operations center at Lokichokio Airport in Kenya, from where relief flights to Rumbek originate.United Nations World Food Program C-130 Hercules transports parked at Lokichokio Airport. After the World Food Program improves the Rumbek airstrip now that it has been cleared of unexploded ordnance, these heavy aircraft will be able to dramatically increase the amount of food, medicine, clothing and shelter needed in the Rumbek region of southern Sudan.

 

  
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