population had to leave quickly in late 2007 during fighting in the area. Five villages were surveyed in April 2009, and the area has been declared safe for the families to return. MAG now plans to expand its activities in the north throughout the remainder of the year in support of the initiative to return 80 per cent of IDPs back to their home areas by the end of 2009. Mine Action in Sri Lanka is coordinated through the National Steering Committee for Mine Action (NSCMA) which is supported though by UNDP. MAG works in coordination with the NSCMA and also through district Mine Action Committees, where communication with all stakeholders allows contaminated areas to be prioritised for clearance and district work plans to be produced. South Sudan MAG has been operational in South Sudan since 1998. At present, MAG has teams carrying out landmine clearance, bomb disposal and destruction of abandoned small arms and light weapons (SALW). MAG also have Community Liaison/Mine Risk Educational teams delivering important messages to settled populations, the internally displaced and returnees living in contaminated areas. Vietnam As the largest non-military clearance organisation operating in Vietnam, MAG plays a key role in reducing the risk and impact of mines/UXO on the local population, and also in facilitating community level post-clearance development and resettlement. MAG first began operating in Quảng Trị Province, central Vietnam, in 1999- encompassing the former DMZ (Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone), which divided Vietnam and witnessed the majority of flighting and bombing during the 1960s and '70s. In early 2003, MAG's operations were expanded to the adjacent province of Quảng Bình. Most of MAG's work is mobile explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) operations, whereby teams systematically work through every village in a commune, clearing all known items of UXO and suspect items. From 1999 to the end of July 2008, MAG achieved the following outputs in Quảng Trị and Quảng Bình provinces: Teams cleared 6,708,715 square metres of land using manual electronic and visual search techniques, removing 22,573 items of UXO and 2,040 mines. Teams also visited 181,125 houses, performing 24,931 EOD tasks and removing 110,663 items of UXO and 439 mines. Since November 2007, Community Liaison teams have conducted 324 community/partner meetings, visiting 255 villages, conducting 7,253 house to house surveys and documenting 962 mine/UXO reports. MAG's work is closely linked to the development plans of the provinces, districts and communities in which it