Five-Year Review: State Party Mozambique ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 14 March 2011. It is undertaking a legislative review to see if new law is needed to enforce its implementation of the convention. Mozambique has attended all of the convention’s meetings and has condemned new use of cluster munitions.

In its initial transparency report for the convention provided in 2012, Mozambique confirmed it has never produced cluster munitions. In October 2014, Mozambique began to destroy a stockpile of 293 cluster munitions and 12,804 submunitions, and hopes to complete destruction by the end of 2015.

Policy

The Republic of Mozambique signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 14 March 2011, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 September 2011.

Mozambique has reported that it is undertaking a review of existing legislation to determine if specific implementing legislation is needed for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1]

Mozambique submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention in June 2012 and has provided annual updated reports ever since, most recently on 29 May 2015.[2]

Mozambique was one of three African states to participate in the launch of the Oslo Process in February 2007, which produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated actively throughout the Oslo Process and was a strong advocate for a comprehensive ban without exceptions, as well as for victim assistance and international cooperation and assistance.[3]

Mozambique engages in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has attended every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fifth Meeting of State Parties in San José, Costa Rica in September 2014, where it provided updates on its stockpile destruction and clearance efforts. Mozambique has participated in all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, most recently in June 2015. It has participated in regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently a seminar convened by Zambia and the ICRC in Lusaka on 17–18 June 2015.[4]

In September 2013, Mozambique stated, “we sincerely regret the continued use of cluster munitions despite their international condemnation,” a reference to the ongoing use of the weapon in Syria.[5]

Mozambique is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Mozambique has not yet elaborated its views on several important issues relating to interpretation and implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, and the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions.

Use, production, and transfer

Mozambique has declared that it “never produced” cluster munitions and “therefore has no need to convert or decommission such facilities.”[6]

It is not clear who was responsible for using cluster munitions in Mozambique in the past. Mozambique has reported that cluster munition remnants, including submunitions from RBK-250 and CB-470 air-dropped bombs, have been found in Tete, Manica, Gaza, and Maputo provinces.[7] In 2011, Mozambique requested that State Parties “provide any technical data on previous cluster munitions strikes within the territory of Mozambique that may be available in their military archives.”[8]

Stockpiling and destruction

Mozambique has declared a stockpile of 293 cluster munitions and 12,804 submunitions.[9] The stockpile is comprised of 210 RBK-250 PTAB-2.5 bombs, each containing 42 PTAB-2.5 high explosive/antitank submunitions (8,820 in total), and 83 RBK-250 ZAB-2.5 bombs, each containing 48 incendiary submunitions (3,984 in total).[10] Confusion over the types of payload contained in some RBK bombs led to initial misreporting of stockpile types and quantities, but this was corrected in 2014.[11] The stockpile was verified in June 2013 during an inventory review and separated from other munitions maintained for operational use.[12]

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Mozambique is required to destroy all its stockpiled cluster munitions as soon as possible but not later than 1 September 2019.

Mozambique reported in May 2015 that it is working to complete its stockpile destruction by the end of 2015.[13]

In 2013, the Ministry of Defence entered into partnership with the National Demining Institute of Mozambique and Norwegian People’s Aid on a joint project to destroy the stockpile of cluster munitions.[14] Procedures for the destruction program were finalized in June 2014, during which one RBK-250 PTAB-2.5 bomb (with 42 PTAB-2.5 submunitions) and one RBK-250 ZAB-2.5 bomb (with 48 ZAB-2.5 incendiary submunitions) were dismantled and destroyed.

Mozambique began destruction of the stockpile in October 2014 and destroyed 90 RBK-250 PTAB-2.5 bombs containing 3,738 PTAB submunitions by the end of 2014. In May 2015, Mozambique reported that logistical delays and rainfall/flooding during the wet season had slowed the destruction process.[15]

Mozambique has reported that it does not intend to retain any cluster munitions for training or research.[16]