Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline: 1 January 2016
(Not on track to meet the deadline)

Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 clearance obligations completed

Recommendations for action

• Mauritania should engage actively with Morocco with a view to ensuring the clearance of remaining mined areas in accordance with its obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty.
• Mauritania should report clearly and in detail on areas it suspects may be on its territory. 

Contamination

Mine contamination

The north of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania has limited remaining mine contamination, a legacy of the conflict over Western Sahara in 1975–1978. As of the end of 2014, only 1.7km² across 13 confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) containing mines remained to be addressed, all in Dakhlet Nouadibou province. During 2015, four demining teams were due to finish clearance activities in the remaining contaminated areas of Swaidyyat, Bolinwar, and Nouadibou.[1] 

Other contaminated areas are located near the border with Western Sahara and might be considered as outside of Mauritanian territory and thus not under its jurisdiction.[2] In its request for a second extension to its Article 5 clearance deadline, Mauritania stated that it “suspects that the security system along the border with Western Sahara, which comprises fortifications and minefields, crosses Mauritanian territory, especially since there is no natural border [between t Mauritania and Western Sahara].”[3]

A 2006 Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) had found a total of 65 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) covering 76km² and affecting 60 communities. This represented a significant exaggeration of the actual mine threat. In March 2010, Morocco provided detailed maps of minefields laid during the Western Sahara conflict. The minefields had been partially cleared using military procedures prior to entry into force of the Mine Ban Treaty.[4]

In 2013, clearance was completed in two of the three contaminated provinces, Tiris Zemour and Adrar. According to to a joint survey conducted by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and the National Humanitarian Demining Programme for Development (Programme National de Déminage Humanitaire pour le Développement, PNDHD), initial non-technical survey of Nouadhibou province in December 2013 identified just over 8km² still requiring technical survey (TS) and clearance.[5]

Cluster munition contamination

Mauritania is no longer contaminated by cluster munition remnants, having completed clearance in 2013.[6] Mauritania formally declared compliance with Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in September 2014.

Contamination by cluster munition remnants in Mauritania resulted from use of MK118, BLU-63, and M42 cluster munitions during the 1975–1978 conflict over Western Sahara. Contamination was located in the northern border areas, around the village of Bir Moghrein in the region of Tiris Zemmour.[7] In Mauritania’s initial Article 7 report, submitted in 2013 and covering 2012, it was reported that cluster munition contamination totaled 10km², covering eight areas north of the village of Bir Moghrein in the northeast of the country.[8] Following survey by NPA in 2013, the estimated area of contamination was substantially revised downwards.[9]

Based on its technical and non-technical survey, NPA revealed that after cancellation by non-technical survey of 70,000m² of area suspected to contain cluster munition remnants in 2012, total area confirmed to contain cluster munition remnants was 2.4km² and covered nine sites: Agwachin, Aldouik, Aydiyatt, Bir Mariam, Eweineget, Gharet el Hemeid, Odeyatt Bozeyan, Oum Edhbaitt, and Teghert.[10] While Mauritania reported a slightly lower figure of 1.97km² for area subsequently cleared, NPA records show that 2.4km² was cleared during operations in 2013.[11]

Mauritania is still contaminated by landmines and unexploded ordinance (UXO).

Program Management 

The PNDHD coordinates mine action operations in Mauritania.[12] Since August 2007, the PNDHD has been the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior and Decentralization, with oversight from an interministerial Steering Committee, established by decree in September 2007. The PNDHD is headquartered in the capital, Nouakchott, with a regional mine action center in Nouadhibou.[13]

Strategic planning

Mauritania’s first Mine Ban Treaty clearance deadline extension request included a detailed work plan for 2010–2015 containing annual milestones of area to be released each year and against which progress could be compared.[14] By the end of 2011, operations were due to be completed in the provinces of Tiris Zemour and Adrar. This was finally achieved in 2013. 

According to Mauritania, in the four years since January 2011 (the beginning of its extension period), the program released all 18 areas that were the subject of the extension covering 64.8km² and with the destruction of 587 antipersonnel mines, 244 antivehicle mines, and 5,179 items of UXO or abandoned explosive ordnance. A further 22 contaminated areas were identified during PNDHD survey conducted with NPA, mainly in Dakhlet Nouadhibou and Adrar provinces of which 2.29km² were released, with the destruction of 123 antipersonnel mines, 225 antivehicle mines, and four explosive remnants of war (ERW).[15]

Operators

In accordance with a 2006 decree, all clearance activities have been conducted by the Army Engineer Corps, operating under the PNDHD. In March 2011, NPA signed an agreement with Mauritania to provide support for mine and battle area clearance (BAC) in the country. NPA has since been working in Mauritania both as an operator and in a capacity-building role.[16] 

At the end of 2013, NPA released its civilian capacity deminers, and from 2014 onwards has been working with demining staff seconded from the Engineers Corps who are rotated every six months.[17] The seconded personnel are working to complete clearance of mine-contaminated areas in Nouadhibou province. The aim is also to develop the Engineers Corps’ capacity to respond to residual threats after completion of planned clearance operations.[18] As of 2015, NPA’s role was largely an advisory one to the PNDHD.[19]

Standards

National mine action standards and standing operating procedures have been developed and adopted in Mauritania.[20] The standards, which were revised with the help of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) in 2010, were translated into Arabic in 2011.[21]

Land Release (Mined Areas)

Survey in 2014 (mined areas)

In a survey completed in January 2014, NPA cancelled 22 SHAs covering almost 27.5km², while confirming another 27 SHAs as mined over a total area of 1.7km².[22]

Survey in 2013–2014

The national mine action database was cleaned of inflated figures at the end of 2013.[23]

Clearance in 2014 (mined areas) 

NPA reports clearance of 0.72km² in 2014, with the destruction of 59 antipersonnel mines, 26 antivehicle mines and, 13 items of UXO.[24]

Mine clearance in 2014

According to NPA, total area cleared decreased slightly in comparison with 2013 (0.84km²), mainly due to additional time spent conducting basic training and personnel rotations, in the new capacity-building arrangement between NPA, the PNDHD, and the Army Corps of Engineers. Total capacity (four manual teams with a total of 20 deminers) remained the same as in 2013.[25]

Land Release (Cluster Munition Remnants)

In 2012, NPA conducted non-technical survey, resulting in cancellation of 70,000m² of area suspected to contain cluster munition remnants, and confirmed 2.4km² as cluster munition contaminated.[26] 

Clearance began in February 2013 with the deployment of 23 NPA deminers and was completed on 30 June 2013.[27] The total area released by clearance in 2013 was 2.4km².

Clearance of cluster munition remnant-contaminated area in 2013[28]

Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 Compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the five-year extension granted by States Parties in 2010), Mauritania is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 January 2016. It is not on track to meet this deadline and has requested a further five-year extension.

In its first extension request, Mauritania explained that the reasons for its inability to meet its deadline were lack of financial resources, insufficient progress in demining, use of only manual clearance, and difficult soil and climatic factors.[29] In presenting its extension request to the Standing Committee in June 2010, Mauritania stated that it had a “coherent plan” that combined land release by survey and clearance and that it hoped to involve international NGOs in its demining program.[30] NPA was subsequently invited to establish a mine action program in 2011. 

In May 2013, Mauritania said it was fully committed to achieving the objectives of its extension, noting that only lack of funding could impede timely fulfilment of its workplan.[31] In April 2015, Mauritania submitted a request for a second extension of its deadline, for a further five years through to 1 January 2021, in order to enter into a dialogue with “all of the stakeholders in the Western Sahara conflict so as to be in a position to clarify the status of the suspected areas” remaining at the border.[32]

Mauritania further undertook to elaborate and implement an action plan that would identify the resource needs for release of the contaminated areas and to inform States Parties of progress at the annual meetings and through Article 7 reports. It would also maintain the PNDHD and the operational demining units for residual clearance and risk education.[33] The second extension request, though, lacked detail and timelines on future actions to be undertaken.

The Mine Ban Treaty Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties in November–December 2015 was due to decide on whether Mauritania’s request for a second extension should be granted.

Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 Compliance

Under Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Mauritania was required to destroy all cluster munition remnants in areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 August 2022. Mauritania completed clearance almost nine years before its treaty deadline. 

In its declaration of Article 4 compliance, Mauritania stated that as of 9 September 2013 it had made every effort to identify all areas under its jurisdiction or control contaminated by cluster munition remnants, and that as of that date it had cleared and destroyed all cluster munition remnants found, in accordance with Article 4(1) of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[34]