Summary: Non-signatory Egypt has expressed its support for efforts to protect civilians from cluster munitions, but sees military utility in the weapons. It objects to key provisions of the convention and the process that created it. In December 2015, Egypt abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly resolution on the convention. It has participated in several meetings of the convention, most recently in 2013. Egypt is a producer, importer, exporter, and possesses stockpiles of cluster munitions. Evidence indicates that Egypt exported or otherwise transferred cluster munition rockets to Syria in the past. Egypt states that it has not used cluster munitions.

Policy

The Arab Republic of Egypt has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Egypt has expressed its support for efforts to protect civilians from cluster munitions, but sees military utility in the weapons. It also objects to key provisions of the convention and the fast-track process that created it.[1]

On 7 December 2015, Egypt abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munition, which urges states outside the convention on “to join as soon as possible.”[2] Egypt did not explain its reasons for abstaining from the vote on the non-binding resolution, which 140 states voted for, including many non-signatories. It said it was abstaining from voting for similar resolutions on the Mine Ban Treaty and Arms Trade Treaty, partly due to the way in which those treaties were negotiated and to a host of criticisms of their provisions.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement upon the entry-into-force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 1 August 2010 expressing hope that its concerns with the text could be addressed at the convention’s First Review Conference.[3] Egypt was invited to, but did not attend the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015.

Egypt participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and engaged in the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer but did not attend the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.[4] Despite participating in the process, Egypt expressed concern in October 2008 with both the “substantive content” of the convention and “the process which led to its conclusion outside the framework of the United Nations.”[5]

Egypt participated as an observer in the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in 2011 as well as intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011 and 2013. Egypt has voted in favor of several UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2015.[6]

Egypt is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Egypt signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons in 1981, but has never ratified.

Use

During the Oslo Process, Egypt stated that it has never used cluster munitions.[7]

Egypt is participating in a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of states against Houthi forces (Ansar Allah) in Yemen that began on 25 March 2015, in a conflict that was continuing as of 20 June 2016.[8] US-supplied cluster munitions have been used in attacks by coalition forces, but the state or states responsible for the use is unclear. Egypt has not commented on an August 2015 report by Human Rights Watch condemning the Saudi-led coalition’s use of M26-series cluster munition rockets in Yemen’s northern Hajjah province.[9] Egypt and coalition member Bahrain possess M26 cluster munition rockets and their launchers, while there is no authoritative publicly available information that Saudi Arabia or Yemen have them.

Egypt has not commented publically or responded to a Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) letter calling on it to refrain from using cluster munitions in the Yemen operation.[10]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Egypt is a producer, importer, exporter, and possesses stockpiles of cluster munitions.

Two state-owned Egyptian companies have produced ground-launched cluster munitions.

SAKR Factory for Developed Industries has produced two types of 122mm surface-to-surface rockets: the SAKR-18 and SAKR-36, containing 72 and 98 dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions, respectively.[11]

Heliopolis Company for Chemical Industries has produced 122mm and 130mm artillery projectiles, which contain 18 and 28 DPICM submunitions, respectively.[12]

Evidence indicates that Egypt exported or otherwise transferred cluster munitions to Syria in the past, most likely before the current conflict.[13] Human Rights Watch and others documented Syrian government use of 122mm cluster munition rockets bearing the markings of the SAKR Factory for Developed Industries.[14]

The state-owned company issued a statement in September 2013 denying that it provided SAKR rockets to the Syrian government of President Assad.[15] The government has not commented on the use of Egyptian-made cluster munition rockets in Syria.[16]

Egypt has imported a significant number of cluster munitions, primarily from the United States (US), which provided at least 760 CBU-87 cluster bombs (each containing 202 BLU-97 submunitions) as part of a foreign military sales program in the early 1990s.[17] Lockheed Martin Corporation was awarded a US$36 million contract to produce 485 M26A1 Extended Range Multiple Launch Rocket System rockets for Egypt in November 1991.[18] Between 1970 and 1995, the US also supplied Egypt with 1,300 Rockeye cluster bombs.[19]

Additionally, Jane’s Information Group notes that KMG-U dispensers of Soviet-origin are also in service for Egypt’s aircraft.[20]

Policy

The Arab Republic of Egypt has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Egypt has often stated its reasons for opposing the treaty, including that antipersonnel landmines are seen as a key means for securing its borders and that responsibility for clearance is not assigned in the treaty to those who laid the mines in the past.[1] In November 2015, Egypt reiterated that it, “views the Convention as lacking balance between the humanitarian concerns relating to the production and use of anti-personnel landmines and their legitimate military use in border protection, particularly in countries with long borders and which face extraordinary security challenges. Furthermore, the Convention does not impose any legal responsibility on a State to remove anti-personnel mines they have placed in the territory of others, making it almost impossible for any State to meet the demining requirement on its own.”[2] It abstained on pro-mine ban UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 70/50 on 7 December 2015, as in all previous years.

Egypt did not participate in any meetings of the convention in 2015 or early 2016.

Egypt signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1981 but never ratified it.

Use

No use of antipersonnel mines could be confirmed by the Monitor in early 2016. Military authorities stated to an Egyptian newspaper that they had begun to lay landmines around military outposts in the Sinai in May 2015, which resulted in the reported deaths of two militants.[3] Egypt did not respond to a letter sent by the ICBL in June 2015 requesting clarification on the report.

Militants linked with Islamic State (IS) claimed to have emplaced mines on the perimeter of a police station during a May 2015 attack in the Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid.[4] Media reports claim that state officials have said that IS is manufacturing explosive weapons from explosives recovered from mines in uncleared minefields in Egypt.[5]

In July 2012, a retired military engineer, General Mohamed Khater, who was formerly in charge of mine clearance in the engineering corps, reportedly stated that the Egyptian armed forces laid a minefield in 2011 on the country’s border with Libya, presumably when forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi lost control of the border to anti-Gaddafi resistance fighters. The Monitor has not been able to verify this claim.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Egypt has stated that it stopped production of antipersonnel mines in 1988 and stopped exports in 1984.[6] In December 2004, Egypt’s Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister stated that “the Egyptian government has imposed a moratorium on all export and production activities related to anti-personnel mines.”[7] This was the first time that Egypt publicly and officially announced a moratorium on production.[8] The Monitor is not aware of any official decrees or laws to implement permanent prohibitions on production or export of antipersonnel mines. In December 2012, Egypt said that it “imposed a moratorium on its capacity to produce and export landmines in 1980.”[9]

Egypt is believed to have a large stockpile of antipersonnel mines, but no details are available on the size and composition of the stockpile, as it is considered a state secret.

Contaminated by: landmines (extent unknown) and unexploded ordnance.

Recommendation for action

• Egypt should seek assistance to develop a functioning civilian mine action program.

Contamination

The Arab Republic of Egypt is contaminated with mines in the Western Desert, which date from World War II, and in the Sinai Peninsula and Eastern Desert, which are a legacy of wars with Israel between 1956 and 1973. Some recent mine incidents in Sinai may have been caused by mines emplaced by anti-government jihadist groups.[1] The precise extent of contamination across the country remains unknown and past estimates have been unreliable.

Most of the Western Desert contamination occurs around the location of World War II battles that took place between the Quattara depression and Alamein on the Mediterranean coast. Other affected areas lie around the city of Marsa Matrouh and at Sallum near the Libyan border.

In August 2016, it was reported that Islamic State had been harvesting the explosives from World War II mines still uncleared in Egypt. According to Ambassador Fathy el-Shazly, who was formerly the head of Egypt’s Executive Secretariat for Mine Clearance, “We’ve had at least 10 reports from the military of terrorists using old mines. Even now, these things trouble us in different ways.”[2]

Program Management 

In 2015 as in previous year, the mine action program in Egypt was not functioning effectively.

A joint project between the Egyptian government and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), “Support the North West Coast Development Plan and Mine Action Programme: Mine Action” is ongoing. The project provides for creation of an Executive Secretariat for Mine Clearance and the Development of the North West Coast within the Ministry of Planning to coordinate implementation of the North West Coast Development Plan through a partnership consisting of the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Defense, and the UNDP. The project foresaw demining based on humanitarian and development needs, mine risk education, and assistance to mine victims.[3]

The first phase of the project concluded in 2014. The director of the executive secretariat acknowledged that the results had been disappointing, due to instability in the country.[4] A second phase is due to last until 2017, funded by the European Union (EU), the UNDP, and USAID.[5]

Operators

Mine clearance in Egypt is conducted by the Egyptian Army Corps of Engineers, part of the Egyptian armed forces.

The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) provides support to the executive secretariat and the Army Corps of Engineers in information management and operations. This support includes revision and introduction of national standard operating procedures for mine action in 2014, advice on land release methodology and techniques, and assistance to the UNDP in improving mechanical mine action.[6]

As noted above, the UNDP is a partner in Egypt’s national demining and development program.

Land Release 

Egypt has not reported with any credibility on its release of mined areas in recent years.

The Monitor gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review supported and published by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), which conducted mine action research in 2016 and shared it with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.

The mine action program in the Arab Republic of Egypt has been stalled since 2009 following the completion of the first phase of a UNDP-supported mine action program (“Support to the North West Coast Development Plan and Mine Action Program”). The second phase of the project—which aims to expand mine clearance operations, facilitate development in the region, reintegrate mine victims, strengthen the national mine action capacity, and assist with resource mobilization efforts—was supposed to start in 2011, but was subject to numerous delays due to lack of funding and political events in Egypt.[1] Finally, phase II was launched in October 2014 with new support (US$6.3 million) provided by the European Union (EU).[2]

In 2015, New Zealand was Egypt’s sole international mine action donor, contributing some NZ$600,000 ($420,000) through the UNDP.[3]

Since 2012, Egypt has not reported any contributions to its own mine action program. The Egyptian army conducts all demining, and no costs associated with demining by the military are publicly available.  

From 2011–2015, international contributions totaled some $9.6 million, 65% of which was provided in 2014.

Summary of contributions: 2011–2015[4]

Casualties Overview

In 2014, the Monitor identified 22 mine/ERW casualties in Egypt. All except one of the casualties were civilians, including four women. Five of the casualties were boys, no girls were reported among casualties in 2014.[1]

The 22 casualties in 2014 represent a significant decrease from 2013, when 69 mine/ERW casualties were reported. In 2013, 32 of the reported casualties were military, while only one military casualty was identified in 2014.[2] The casualty total for 2014 is also a decrease from the 46 mine/ERW casualties recorded in Egypt in 2012 (only one military casualty was also recorded).[3]

Several sources have estimated the total number of known casualties to be around 8,000. However, the period of data collection for these statistics is not reported. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported in 2006 that there had been 8,313 mine casualties (696 people killed; 7,617 injured; 5,017 were civilians) in the Western Desert since 1982.[4] Almost identical statistics were reported in 1998, but for the period 1945–1996.[5]

Victim Assistance

In 2010, there were estimated to be at least 900 mine/ERW survivors in Egypt.[6] By May 2015, detailed information had been collected on 761 survivors in the Matruh governorate.[7] This database was believed to include information on 91–95% of all mine/ERW survivors in the governorate.[8] No data was available on survivors based outside of Matruh.

Victim assistance coordination[9]

The National Committee technically provides oversight for all mine action activities undertaken by the Executive Secretariat, including victim assistance. These activities are restricted to the Matruh governorate; there is no victim assistance coordination for the rest of Egypt. The committee is comprised of representatives from 20 ministries, local officials from four governorates, and from several NGOs. Among the objectives of the Executive Secretariat’s activities, are establishing a regularly updated database on mine/ERW victims, regularly conducting field visits to victims, and providing rehabilitation and prosthetics and economic inclusion activities[10]

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Solidarity shared responsibility for protecting the rights of all persons with disabilities in Egypt.[11]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[12]

In 2015, the UNDP, in partnership with the Ministry of International Cooperation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Defense, launched the second phase of “Support to the North West Coast Development Plan and Relevant Mine Action,” which included victim assistance activities. The UNDP reported that in a previous pilot project, all loan installments for income-generation activities due to date had been successfully repaid by beneficiaries.[13] Based on information from local consultations, the project also launched a microcredit loan program focusing on women, benefiting a total number of a 100 female mine victims and female relatives of mine victims.[14] In 2015, the Executive Secretariat reported that 259 survivors received prostheses under these projects.[15]

No information was available on psychological or social support for mine/ERW survivors in 2014. However, in 2013, the UNDP noted the need for ongoing participatory dialogue and for building and maintaining relationships with the Bedouin community to develop the capacities of survivors in identifying and resolving grievances by negotiation. It also asserted the need for the mine action program to develop flexibility in recognizing the concerns of the community “in a manner which still allows effective implementation of project activities.”[16]

Egypt had no legislation prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities in education, access to healthcare, or the provision of other state services, nor are there laws mandating access to buildings or transportation; discrimination remained widespread. While the constitutions states that all citizens are equal there is no explicit prohibition on discrimination.[17]

Egypt ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 14 April 2008.