Mine event in Juba, Juba area, South Sudan on Fri 18th January 2019

Large aircraft bomb defused by UN Mine Action Service to protect families in Juba For the crowd gathered to watch the defusing of a 50kg bomb found in the middle of Juba, the muffled “whump” heard from within the bunker is strangely disappointing. But a more spectacular explosion would have been a sign that things had actually gone terribly wrong for the mine action team, which specializes in disposing deadly weapons. The bomb is likely to have been dropped from an aircraft years ago, during the war of independence in South Sudan. No one knows how it suddenly turned up in the middle of an open field next to a football pitch where children have been playing, and near a community of thousands of displaced families.