Reducing Civilian Casualty through Clearance of Mines and Explosive Remnants of War  Paktya Province (Jaji District) Four decades of armed conflict in Afghanistan have left widespread mine and ERW contamination across the country. The Mine Action Program of Afghanistan (MAPA) has been working to clear this contamination since 1989. The Program currently focuses on implementing the ten-year Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty (APMBT) Extension Request Work Plan which will see all recorded contamination cleared by 2023 if sufficient funds are available. The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) supports the efforts of the Government of Afghanistan’s Directorate for Mine Action Coordination (DMAC) to coordinate the completion of the plan through its project, the United Nations Humanitarian Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNHMACA).
Paktya is a province with decades of mine history since 1980, most of the mines were laid by Russian forces. There is a total of 5,189,434 m2 of mine contaminated land that remains un-cleared. Under this project, as per the work plan, below 16 hazards with a total area of 607,197 m2 in Ali Khail (Jaji) district have been planned to be cleared as a result, 9 communities will be released from the impact of mine/ERW.
OMAR’s criteria for prioritization is to consider the number of victims, local requests, resettlement, blockages to agricultural fields, grazing, water, and livelihoods of communities. There are more than 3,232 families, with total beneficiaries of 22,622 direct and 17,367 indirect individuals.

OMAR has worked in Paktya province, covered Ahmad Abad, Ali Khail (Jaji), Chamkani, Dand Patan, Gardiz, Laja Ahmad Khail, Sayed Karam, Shewak, and Zurmat districts, and completed several demining and EORE projects funded through UNMAS, US DoS and OCHA and has very good community relations with the local people and governmental authorities. Therefore, OMAR is capable of implementing this project in the area as has recently accomplished several projects successfully.

Based on the assessment carried out by OMAR in 2021 from the 9 impacted communities in Ali Khail (Jaji) district of Paktya province, OMAR as per the hazard list identified the following: 
1) Ali Khail village with 1 AP hazard of 8,259 m2 area. 
2) Bar Ali-Sangi with 1 AV hazard of 4,141 m2 area.
3) Baraiz Khail with 1 AV hazard of 1,188 m2 area.
4) Bayan Khail with 3 AP and AP/ERW hazards of a total 146,835 m2 area.
5) Ghunjay with 2 AP hazards of a total 177,053 m2 area.
6) Gulghunday with 3 AP and ERW hazards of a total 72,865 m2 area.
7) Jadrano Kelly with 2 AP and ERW hazards of a total 70,072 m2 area.
8) Kuz Ali Sangi with 1 AP and 1 AV hazard of a total 77,252 m2 area.
9) Petla with 1 AT hazard of a total 49,532 m2 area.

Under this project, OMAR will deploy 6 DTs for 6 months which will consist of 9 deminers, 1 driver deminer, 1 medic, 2 section leaders, 1 team leader, and 1 guard along with 1 MDU ripper cultivator machine consisting of 12 staff for 1 month to Ali Khail (Jaji) district. OMAR will also provide employment to local community members as guards, cooks, drivers, and community mobilizers over the course of the project. 

OMAR will adopt the following technical approaches to achieve the set target under the project in Paktya province as per the AHF 1st Standard Allocation for 2022:

 Conducting a non-technical survey of all 16 hazards and reporting fresh non-technical survey findings to DMAC/UNMAS.
 Conducting the technical survey on each hazard to identify high amp low threat areas and facilitate area reduction through systematic amp targeted investigation.
 Conducting clearance of all 16 hazards in accordance with OMAR’s SOPs in compliance with AMAS and IMAS and handing over the cleared land to the owners/land user.
 Civilian causality data collection through OMAR teams in the area.
 Conducting informal EORE in the impacted communities through the available resources in the area reaching 8,000 individuals directly. The teams' command shall provide EORE sessions in Masjids, Guesthouse, etc.