Contaminated by: antipersonnel mines (light contamination), cluster munition remnants (light contamination), and other unexploded ordnance (residual contamination). 

Article 5 Deadline: 1 January 2015
(Should submit extension request)         

Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 deadline: 1 September 2021
(On track to meet deadline)

The Republic of Mozambique officially declared completion of its Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 obligations in December 2015 at the Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties. This declaration at the international level followed an announcement made at the national level during a public event held in the capital Maputo in September 2015.

Since the end of major clearance operations, however, mined areas continued to be reported, including in March 2016 when an additional area of 63,600m² was identified by non-technical survey (NTS) in Cabo Delgado province that had still to be released as of October 2016. Despite committing to do so, Mozambique has not reported publicly on this mined area and has not sought a new extension to its deadline.

During surveys intended to confirm the absence of cluster munition remnants, in order to complete Mozambique’s Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 obligations, six areas with a total size of nearly 0.74km² of confirmed cluster munition contamination were identified. Clearance of these areas began in January 2016. Later in 2016, two additional areas of cluster munition contamination were also identified, and clearance of those areas commenced.

Recommendations for action 

• Mozambique should inform Mine Ban Treaty States Parties of all mined areas found since it reported completion of its Article 5 clearance obligations, and report on the status of programs for their destruction.
• Given that, almost two years after its Article 5 deadline expired, Mozambique still has at least one mined area to release, it should request a further Article 5 deadline extension at the Fifteenth Meeting of States Parties in Santiago.
• Mozambique should complete clearance of cluster munition remnants in order to declare fulfilment of Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 by the end of 2016.
• Mozambique should ensure a sufficient demining capacity remains in place to deal with mine or explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination.
• Mozambique should ensure that the national mine action database is transferred to an appropriate government ministry and that resources are allocated to maintain the database.
• Surplus mine clearance equipment beyond Mozambique’s requirements could be exported to assist clearance in other mine-affected countries, in particular Zimbabwe, as soon as possible. 

Mine Contamination

Mozambique formally declared compliance with its Article 5 obligations at the Mine Ban Treaty Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties in December 2015. Previously, Mozambique had announced its completion of antipersonnel mine clearance on 17 September 2015.[1] In a public ceremony, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Oldemiro Baloi, declared the country to be free of the “threat” of mines following survey and clearance of more than 3,000 areas across a total of more than 55km² in 2008–2014 and the destruction of over 86,000 antipersonnel mines.[2] 

In October 2016, however, the National Demining Institute (IND) reported that mine contamination remained.[3] Since September 2015, and working in coordination with the IND and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), international NGO demining operator APOPO has responded to a number of mine and ERW tasks in southern, central, and northern provinces of Mozambique.[4]

In March 2016, APOPO identified a mined area covering 63,600m² during NTS in Nangade district, Cabo Delgado province, near the border with Tanzania.[5] The IND has stated that this mined area requires “significant confirmed funds to deploy sufficient capacity to adequately and safely resolve the threat in accordance with IMAS [International Mine Action Standards].”[6] APOPO also destroyed two antipersonnel mines during clearance of 2,100m² during a task in Massingir district, Gaza province.[7] According to the IND, antipersonnel mines were also destroyed by police trained to conduct explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) after the completion of clearance was announced.[8]

Mozambique was contaminated with mines, mostly antipersonnel, as a legacy of nearly 30 years of conflict that ended in 1992. Mozambique made considerable progress in clearing mined areas and was planning to complete all clearance in accordance with its extended Article 5 deadline. However, it failed to meet its 1 January 2015 deadline and almost 0.3km² of mined area still remained at that date.[9] Of this, five confirmed mined areas containing antipersonnel mines covered a total of 171,000m², while a further 51 suspected mined areas had an estimated total size of 118,000m².[10] Contamination was located in three provinces—Inhambane, Manica, and Sofala—as set out in the table below. 

Mined areas by province as at end 2014[11]

In February 2015, Mozambique provided an update to States Parties on its remaining contamination and the factors that had prevented it from meeting its Article 5 deadline. It announced that it would complete clearance of all remaining contaminated areas by the end of September 2015 and “certainly no later than the end of November 2015.”[12] Manica province was declared free of the threat of mines in April 2015 and Sofala in August, allowing Mozambique to report completion of mine clearance in September.[13]

In 2015, remaining mine contamination was mostly in small nuisance minefields in remote areas around former military positions, and around a number of infrastructure sites, blocking access to agricultural land and infrastructure.

From January to September 2015, HALO teams cleared contamination in Inhambane, Manica, Sofala, and Tete provinces, including at Linha Fronteira–Espungabera in Manica province; the Beira power line in Manica and Sofala provinces; the Dondo railway bridges in Sofala province; a number of small minefields in Inhambane province; and a mined area by the Kahira river in Tete province on the Zimbabwean border.[14] APOPO and Norewgian People’s Aid (NPA) reported operations consisting of small, isolated tasks in Manica and Sofala.[15] HI’s mine clearance in Inhambane province had concluded by April 2015.[16]

Mine clearance in Mozambique has brought significant socio-economic benefits, enabling development investment in support of natural resource mining, agriculture, and infrastructure construction, while also directly contributing to Mozambique’s national Poverty Reduction Action Plan. Other benefits from clearance include increased mobility and opportunities for cross-border trade for local populations along the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border, and longer-term benefits for rural communities through improved access to health and education services and facilitating their expansion.[17] In one example, in 2015, HALO completed clearance of a number of railway bridges and viaducts in Dondo, Sofala province carrying the Beira to Machipanda railroad line, a vital link to domestic and international markets, including for several landlocked African countries and for Mozambique’s agricultural production capacity. Clearance of the bridges enabled critical railway maintenance activities that had been hindered by the presence of mines.[18] 

Two mine/ERW incidents were reported in 2015. (See the Casualties and Victim Assistance country profile for further details.)

Cluster Munition Contamination

Mozambique had six areas with a total size of nearly 0.74km² of confirmed cluster munition contamination at the end of 2015. NPA identified the areas during a targeted cluster munition remnants survey undertaken in September–December 2015. Five areas with a total size of close to 0.67km² were found in Manica province and one area with a size of nearly 0.07km² was found in Tete province.[19]

At the end of 2014, Mozambique had no known areas confirmed to contain cluster munition remnants. However, the IND asked NPA to undertake a cluster munition remnants survey in the second half of 2015 in Gaza, Manica, and Tete provinces, targeting specific communities. According to the IND, this was intended as a mix of additional non-technical and technical survey to confirm that areas where clearance had already been carried out did not contain any cluster munition remnants, with a view to ensuring completion of cluster munition clearance “by no later than 2016.”[20]

Cluster munitions are reported to have been used on “a limited scale” during the 1977–1992 war in Mozambique.[21] In 2013, Mozambique reported that the extent of areas contaminated by cluster munition remnants was not known, though it noted that cluster munitions had been used in seven provinces: Gaza, Manica, Maputo, Niassa, Sofala, Tete, and Zambezia.[22] A small number of RBK-250 cluster munition containers and unexploded submunitions, notably Rhodesian-manufactured Alpha bomblets, were found in Maputo, Gaza, Manica, and Tete provinces in 2005–2014.[23]

In 2014, Mozambique asserted that most of the resultant cluster munition remnants had already been destroyed during mine and ERW clearance.[24] According to the IND, the risk posed by cluster munition remnants to the civilian population is limited.[25] NPA, however, noted that since the cluster munition remnants it identified in 2015 were close to populated areas and in former agricultural areas, their humanitarian impact was potentially significant.[26] 

Other Explosive Remnants of War Contamination 

Mozambique also has residual contamination from ERW, including unexploded ordnance (UXO). The IND’s 2015 annual workplan includes as an objective to “establish and implement mechanisms for the management of risks from residual UXO and other ERW.”[27] In October 2016, NGO mine action operator Handicap International (HI) raised concerns that the threat from UXO had increased over the course of 2015 as renewed armed violence persisted in Mozambique’s central provinces.[28] 

Program Management

The IND serves as the national mine action center in Mozambique, reporting to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Provincial demining commissions have also been created to assist in planning mine action operations. Since 1999, the UNDP has provided technical assistance to the IND, most recently under a three-year program that ended in 2015.[29]

Standards 

In 2013–2015, the IND sought to revise its national mine action standards (NMAS) to include specific guidance on clearance of cluster munition remnants, with assistance from NPA.[30] Revised NMAS were not ultimately adopted, however, and the IND explicitly allowed NPA, the only body carrying out cluster munition survey and clearance in 2015–2016, to operate under the organization’s own standing operating procedures, which include provisions on battle area clearance (BAC) specific to cluster munition remnants.[31]

Operators 

In 2015, four international humanitarian mine clearance organizations were operational in Mozambique: APOPO, HALO Trust, HI, and NPA. Demining has also been conducted by the Mozambican army and several commercial operators. 

HALO reduced its operational capacity in Mozambique gradually in 2015, starting the year with 419 staff and ending its operations in August with 175 staff.[32] After its demining operations ceased, HALO retained only a small capacity in Mozambique to assist the government with ammunition disposal.[33]

NPA employed a total of 23 staff in 2015, down from 54 deminers in 2014.[34] NPA’s operations in 2016 were to carry out cluster munition clearance only.[35] Its survey team comprised eight staff in 2015, which increased to 20 cluster munition clearance personnel in January–June 2016.[36] 

APOPO’s capacity included nearly 150 staff, and six mechanical demining sections, six mine detection rat teams, and nine manual demining teams during the year.[37] As noted below, it retained a residual demining capacity in 2016.

HI deployed eight deminers and one machine for three months before concluding operations in April 2015.[38]

Quality management

NGO operators confirmed that the IND carried out external quality assurance and quality control activities in 2015.[39] The IND reported that final survey was conducted in every district to ensure all hazardous areas had been cleared.[40] 

Once NPA began cluster munition clearance operations in January 2016, the IND did not have the resources to undertake external quality assurance (QA)/quality control (QC) visits. NPA provided funding for two IND QA officers to conduct a QA field visit to its operations.[41] 

Information management 

According to the IND and HI, the quality of the data in the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) significantly improved during the year, with duplicate areas removed and better monitoring of the accuracy of reporting on clearance.[42] IND received technical IMSMA support from NPA.[43]

Land Release (Mines)

The total hazardous area released in 2015 by NGOs was 0.45km², almost all through clearance and technical survey, with an additional 7,700m² canceled by NTS.[44] This represented, as expected, a major decrease from 2014, when just over 6.3km² was released, including 3.5km² by clearance and technical survey, and a further 2.8km² canceled by NTS.[45] The IND did not report any land release data for the army or commercial operators.

Survey in 2015 (mines)

A total of nearly 162,000m² was released through survey in January–September 2015, of which 7,700m² was canceled by NTS and 154,000m² reduced by technical survey (TS), while an additional 130,000m² was confirmed as contaminated.[46] 

Mined area survey in 2015[47]

Note: SHAs = suspected hazardous areas.

HALO reported reducing a total of 78,112m² at Linha Fronteira–Espungabera in Manica province in the first quarter of 2015. It also assessed 24 minefields in Inhambane province, of which 13 were resurveyed, six were cleared, and three were canceled. The remaining three areas, HALO stated, were inaccessible due to their being submerged under water.[48]

Clearance in 2015 

From January to September 2015, more than 285,000m² of mined area was cleared, with the destruction of 1,263 antipersonnel mines and 125 items of UXO.[49] This compares to clearance of 2.9km² of mined area the previous year.[50]

Mine clearance in 2015[51]

HALO Trust’s clearance operations in 2015 included a 13,013m² minefield on the border of Tete province and Zimbabwe, in which it destroyed 865 antipersonnel mines.[52] HALO found the last minefields it cleared in 2015 some of the most technically challenging, while being of high priority for Mozambique’s socio-economic development.[53] HALO noted the particular difficulty of clearing the Dondo railway bridges, which required use of heavy mechanical assets and equipment to pump water away from the semi-submerged minefields, the digging of channels to divert water, creation of new tracks to reach the mined bridges, and clearing of mines at depths beyond those that deminers with metal detectors could normally find.[54]

In addition to its mine clearance activities, HALO teams responded to 54 EOD call-outs, destroying 370 explosive items: 13 mines, 324 items of UXO, and 33 Alpha submunitions. It also conducted BAC of nearly 0.55km² of cluster munition remnants in Manica province, destroying 23 Alpha submunitions.[55]

Progress in 2016 

APOPO remained in Mozambique after the completion of clearance through October 2016 at the request of the IND as residual demining capacity and, as such, provided rapid response on numerous tasks, including survey, clearance, and EOD across provinces in south, central, and northern Mozambique.[56] In September 2015–October 2016, APOPO responded to 11 tasks in Cabo Delgado, Gaza, Manica, Maputo, and Sofala provinces, surveying a total of more than 110,000m² of SHA. In addition to identifying a mined area of 63,600m², APOPO reported destroying two antipersonnel mines during clearance of just over 2,100m² in a task in Massingir district, Gaza province, and destruction of a total of 13 items of UXO across all 11 tasks.[57]

Land Release (Cluster Munition Remnants) 

As stated above, in September–December 2015, survey teams confirmed six areas with a total size of 737,454m² as cluster munition contaminated on the basis of a targeted survey of communities in Gaza, Manica, and Tete provinces. Of these, five areas were located in Manica province with a total size of 667,958m² and a sixth (69,496m²) was identified in Tete province.[58] No cluster munition contamination was identified in Gaza province.[59] 

HALO conducted BAC of nearly 0.55km² of cluster munition remnants in Manica province, destroying 23 Alpha submunitions.[60] 

Total cluster munition-contaminated area released by clearance and technical survey in 2014 was approximately 350,000m².[61]

Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 Compliance 

On 1 December 2015, at the Mine Ban Treaty Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva, Mozambique officially declared completion of its Article 5 obligations to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control. However, subsequently a mined area was identified, that had not been cleared as of October 2016.

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with its second extension granted by States Parties in December 2013), Mozambique was required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control no later than 1 January 2015. It was not able to meet this deadline, and was therefore in violation of the treaty from 1 January to September 2015, when it announced completion during a public event in Maputo.

Mozambique reported that it had failed to meet its extended deadline due to three primary factors. The first was ongoing “low-intensity military hostilities creating a situation of temporary insecurity” between January and August 2014 in Manica and Sofala provinces, which prevented access to some mined areas and caused logistical and transportation difficulties. Second, it stated that continuing insecurity had raised logistical costs, resulting in delays and reduced productivity in certain areas as teams and equipment had to take longer routes to reach affected areas.[62] Third, some demining tasks in Manica and Sofala provinces were suspended due to heavy rains in December 2014.[63] Mozambique submitted a comprehensive and detailed progress report to Mine Ban Treaty States Parties on its activities in 2014 and its plans and capacity to complete remaining clearance in 2015.[64]

Mozambique stated in its declaration of completion of Article 5 that if previously unknown areas of mine contamination were subsequently discovered, it would:

• Immediately inform States Parties of any discovery and report any mined areas in accordance with its Article 7 transparency obligations and at Mine Ban Treaty meetings;
• Ensure the effective exclusion of civilians from any contaminated areas;
• Destroy all antipersonnel mine contamination as soon as possible; and
• If it cannot destroy all contamination in the mined area before the next Meeting of States Parties, submit a request for another extended Article 5 clearance deadline in accordance with its obligations as a Mine Ban Treaty State Party.[65] 

Upon announcing completion of mine clearance, Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister Baloi estimated that the overall cost of demining activities in Mozambique since 1993 had amounted to more than US$220 million.[66] In October 2016, the UNDP reported that a number of key challenges remained in the phasing out of Mozambique’s national mine action program. This included difficulties in digitalizing demining completion reports from NGO operators and the need for a back-up system to avoid the loss of data. The transfer of the database, along with information management staff, to the Ministry of Land, Environment, and Rural Development and the proposed transfer of database copies for storage with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of State Administration, had still to occur as of October 2016. The future of the IND, which still employed 24 staff, also remained uncertain.[67]

Measures to maintain a capacity to address ERW and residual mine contamination

According to the IND, due to the nature of the mine contamination in Mozambique and the lack of mine maps, the risk remained that mines would be found after Mozambique’s declaration of compliance with Article 5. In May 2015, the IND reported it was working with the government to establish a sustainable national capacity to manage residual risk, in accordance with its national mine action plan.[68] The IND called for additional funding for future ERW-related projects, as well as for training and equipping a national capacity to manage residual contamination.[69] 

After the completion of clearance in September 2015, the government of Mozambique embarked on training and equipping the provincial police to be able to respond to EOD call-outs. In total, as of October 2016, the IND had trained and certified 194 police officials from all provinces to handle residual threats, and provided provincial commanders with equipment such as personal protective kits, explosives, and metal detectors.[70]

Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 Compliance 

Under Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Mozambique is required to destroy all cluster munition remnants in areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 September 2021. Mozambique should fulfil its Article 4 obligations well in advance of its treaty deadline. Indeed, since 2013, Mozambique has reported on several occasions that it would complete cluster munition clearance and ensure compliance with Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions by “no later than the end of 2016.”[71]

In June 2016, NPA expressed its belief that it was still possible for Mozambique to meet its end 2016 target and complete clearance of all eight identified cluster munition-contaminated areas by the end of the year with current capacity. It cautioned, though, that if additional cluster munition contamination were found it might be necessary to extend clearance plans for a few months into 2017.[72]

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.