South Sudan’s legacy of land mines hurts recovery from war

By DENG MACHOL
Associated Press

GONDOKORO, South Sudan (AP) — As South Sudan struggles for peace, it’s still cleaning up the deadly threat posed by thousands of land mines from previous conflict decades ago. Cattle herders. Charcoal collectors. Children. All have been victims of long-forgotten mines that continue to make South Sudan one of the world’s most dangerous countries for unexploded ordnance. The mines are a stealth problem among the country’s more pressing ones, which include the slow recovery from a five-year civil war, growing hunger and the worst flooding in decades. “I put God first,” one woman says, never knowing what she’ll encounter when she goes out to seek firewood.