Summary: State Party Niger was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010. Niger has expressed its desire to adopt national implementation legislation. It has participated in nearly all of the convention’s meetings and has elaborated its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention. Niger states that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions, but it has not submitted an initial transparency report for the convention to formally confirm this.

Policy

The Republic of Niger signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 2 June 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.

Niger has expressed its desire to enact national implementing legislation for the convention, but the current status of the process was not known as of June 2016.[1] Previously, in 2013, Niger reported that a draft national implementation law for the convention was being prepared.[2] Since 2010, government officials have indicated that Niger is in the process of preparing implementing legislation for the convention.[3]

As of 30 May 2016, Niger had not yet submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was originally due 28 January 2011.

Niger participated in the Oslo Process that produced the convention and supported a comprehensive treaty without exception.[4]

Niger has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention as well as the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in September 2015, where it made a statement in the high-level segment.[5] Niger attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2012–2015 and it has participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Lomé, Togo in May 2013.

On 7 December 2015, Niger voted in favor of the first UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urged states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[6]

At the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in September 2014, Niger expressed regret at recent use of cluster munitions and pledged to do “all we can to promote humanitarian disarmament.”[7] In December 2015, Niger voted in favor of UNGA Resolution 70/234, which “deplores and condemns” the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[8]

Niger has elaborated its views on certain important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention. An official informed the Monitor in 2013 that Niger considered transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on the territory of a State Party to be prohibited under the convention. Similarly, Niger considers assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions and investment in the production of cluster munitions to be banned by the convention.[9]

Niger is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Niger has stated that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[10]

Contaminated by: antipersonnel and antivehicle mines (light contamination). May also be contaminated by victim-activated improvised explosive devices (IEDs). 

Article 5 Deadline: 1 January 2017
(Extension requested until 31 December 2020)

At the end of 2015, the Republic of Niger had confirmed approximately 22,300m² of antipersonnel mine contamination, and had one suspected hazardous area (SHA) containing both antipersonnel and antivehicle mines, with an estimated size of almost 0.2km². It submitted its second Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline extension request late, without a detailed workplan or sufficient information to explain its request for a further period of five years to clear relatively small contamination.

Recommendations for action

• Niger should provide a detailed workplan to accompany its revised second Article 5 extension request, with benchmarks against which progress can be assessed.
• Niger should provide regular updates on progress in clearance and the extent of contamination remaining. It should also inform Mine Ban Treaty States Parties of the discovery of any new contamination from antipersonnel mines, including victim-activated IEDs, and report on the location of all suspected or confirmed mined areas under its jurisdiction or control.
• Niger should accept offers of assistance in a timely manner, which would improve the speed and efficiency of clearance and enable completion far earlier than 2020.
• Niger should develop a resource mobilization plan to meet funding needs beyond expected national contributions.

Contamination

As of the end of 2015, Niger had confirmed approximately 22,300m² of antipersonnel mine contamination remaining from a mined area with a total size of just over 39,000m², identified in 2014. It also had one SHA containing both antipersonnel and antivehicle mines, with an estimated size of 196,253m².[1]

One of Niger’s seven regions, Agadez, in the north, contains the two mined areas. The confirmed mined area, located at Madama military post, was identified during an assessment mission in June 2011 and initially estimated to cover 2,400m². The minefield is in a remote desert area, 450km from the rural community of Dirkou in Bilma department.[2] The minefield is reported to contain French MI AP ID 51 mines, which date back to the French colonial era.[3]

Technical survey in 2014 concluded that the extent of contamination at Madama was considerably larger than the earlier estimate, covering 39,304m².[4] Niger stated that the area had been divided into 12 sectors and that the perimeter had been fenced and placed under military surveillance.[5] It deployed a team of 60 deminers to the area around the Madama military post in November 2014, and reported that, as of November 2015, a total of more than 17,000m² had been cleared and 750 mines destroyed.[6]

The 2014 survey also identified the other SHA nearby suspected to contain both antipersonnel and antivehicle mines.[7] It also found five additional SHAs in Agadez region (in Achouloulouma, Blaka, Enneri, Orida, and Zouzoudinga) but they were believed to contain only antivehicle mines.[8] These mined areas are the result of a rebellion in 1990–2000 as well as fighting in 2007 between the Nigerien army and a non-state armed group, the Nigerien Justice Movement (Mouvement des Nigériens pour la Justice), and some splinter factions.

In 2015–2016, there were a number of reports of casualties and incidents involving the use of “landmines” and victim-activated IEDs by Boko Haram, primarily in the south-eastern Diffa region along the border with Nigeria, as Niger increased its participation in joint military offensives against Boko Haram as part of a Multi-National Joint Task Force launched in 2015.[9] Most reports appear to describe the use of victim-activated IEDs made by Boko Haram, which functioned as either antipersonnel mines or antivehicle mines.[10] (See the Mine Ban Policy profile and the Casualties profile for further details.)

Program Management

The national mine action program is managed by the National Commission for the Collection and Control of Illicit Weapons (Commission Nationale pour la Collecte et le Contrôle des Armes Illicites, CNCCAI), which reports directly to the President. All demining has been carried out by the Nigerien army.

Niger’s 2013 extension request included a workplan for 2014–2015 requiring clearance of the Madama mined area, technical survey in the northern Kawar (Kaouar) department (Agadez region), and verification of other suspected mined areas. Niger’s revised second extension request submitted in 2016 contains a vague workplan for 2016–2020, but does not contain details of annual clearance outputs or milestones.[11]

Niger reported that, as of November 2015, it had drafted national mine action standards in accordance with the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) and was in the process of training deminers and eight community liaison officers for deployment in Kawar. It later stated that in addition to the 60 deminers active at Madama since November 2014, 40 were trained in February 2015, 30 of whom were deployed by April 2015.[12] Niger reported in June 2015, however, that due to lack of adequate equipment, it was not possible for all deminers to work at the same time.[13] 

In May 2015, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) conducted an evaluation mission in Niger and subsequently offered to provide assistance to national demining efforts through the donation of equipment to enable the deployment of more deminers and short-term technical support to improve Niger’s clearance productivity.[14] Niger has not accepted the support NPA offered.

Land Release

Survey in 2015 

No survey was conducted in 2015. 

Clearance in 2015 

From the initiation of operations at Madama in November 2014 to November 2015, a total of 17,000m² was cleared and 750 mines were destroyed.[15] In 2014, 634m² was cleared with the destruction of 42 antipersonnel mines.[16]

In its revised second extension request, Niger gave new but conflicting reports that as of March 2016, “more than 39,304m² had been demined and close to 1,075 mines removed”; but then also stated that “93,042m²” had been demined, and a total of 1,075 mines destroyed.[17] 

Article 5 Compliance

At the Mine Ban Treaty Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties in December 2015, Niger was granted a one-year extension, until 31 December 2016, to its Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control.

Niger’s previous Article 5 clearance deadline under its first extension request expired on 1 January 2016. Due to greater than expected contamination at Madama and the identification of another area of suspected antipersonnel mine contamination, it was not on track to meet this deadline. On 12 November 2015, just weeks before the Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties, Niger submitted a second request for an extension of a period of five years until 1 January 2021.

Instead, States Parties decided to grant Niger a one-year extension only, noting that Niger had failed to submit its request within the agreed timeline prior to the meeting and thus had not permitted time for sufficient analysis or discussion. The decision “noted that Niger and the Convention as a whole would benefit from a full extension process taking place” and requested that, as such, Niger “submit a request, in accordance with the established process, by 31 March 2016.”[18] 

The decision also observed that the plan presented by Niger in the request was “workable but lacks ambition” and requested that Niger provide, in its revised submission, an updated workplan with an up-to-date list of all areas known or suspected to contain antipersonnel mines as well as annual clearance projections during the period covered by the request.[19]

In April 2016, Niger re-submitted its extension request for a period of five years from the end of 2015 (its earlier deadline) until 31 December 2020.[20] The revised submission included geo-coordinates for the Madama mined area, but failed to include a detailed annual workplan or any specific annual projections for the clearance of the remaining mined areas, despite this being an essential part of any extension request, and it having been explicitly requested to do so by the Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties.

In its extension requests, Niger has noted desert environment, insecurity, and lack of funding as challenges for the implementation of its clearance obligations, along with the remote location of contamination and the need for a weekly military escort to carry out demining activities.[21]

Niger funded all mine action activities in 2014–2015.[22] Under its latest extension request, Niger stated that more than US$3.2 million in funding is needed to fulfil its remaining Article 5 obligations, including $1 million for the CNCCAI from the national budget over the five-year period, and $2.2 million to be mobilized from external donors.[23]

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.

Casualties Overview

In 2015, the Monitor identified eight mine casualties in the Republic of Niger.[1] This represented an increase from the two casualties in one mine incident recorded in 2014.[2] Mine casualties recorded in 2015 were associated with intensifying Boko Haram insurgent activities in southeast Niger, in the region bordering Nigeria. Reports indicated mines or improvised mines (victim-activated improvised explosive devices, IEDs) having been the cause. In February, two military personnel were killed and another four injured in Bosso, on the border with Nigeria. The mine was reportedly used in the conflict around Diffa town. Less than a week later, two civilians were killed when their horse-drawn cart drove over an unidentified mine in the same area.[3]

The Monitor has recorded 411 mine/ERW casualties (108 killed; 286 injured; 17 unknown outcome) from 1999 to 2015. In 2014, National Commission for the Collection and Control of Illicit Weapons (Commission Nationale Pour la Collecte et le Contrôle des Armes Illicites, CNCCAI) reported a total of 400 (108 killed; 287 injured; 5 unknown outcome) mine/ERW casualties in Niger between 2007 and April 2014.[4]

Victim Assistance

As of the end of 2015, the total number of mine/ERW survivors in Niger was at least 286. Most survivors were concentrated in the Agadez region.

In Diffa, an ICRC surgical team treated weapon-wounded patients at the regional hospital and the Bosso health center. The ICRC also provided supplies, equipment, and infrastructure repairs.[5] 

Coordination

CNCCAI is the government focal point for victim assistance, but due to a lack of funds its role has been largely limited to advocacy within the government on behalf of survivors.

Disability issues are the responsibility of the Ministry of Population, Gender and Child Protection; the Ministry of Health deals with physical rehabilitation services.[6]

Niger lacks a specific victim assistance plan, but victim assistance was one of the six sectors of intervention of the Action Plan 2009–2013.[7] While the Ministry of Health does have a National Health Development plan (2011–2015), there was no mention of physical rehabilitation in the plan.[8]

Niger has not submited a Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report since 2012. This report, for calendar year 2011, included information on victim assistance in Form J.

Victim assistance services were severely limited, particularly in the Agadez region, where most survivors are located.[9]

In 2015, the ICRC continued to support the physical rehabilitation department at Niamey National Hospital (HNN), including materials and technical input to help it become more sustainable. Eighty mine/ERW survivors had food, transport, and accommodation costs related to rehabilitation covered by the ICRC. In all, 540 persons with physical disabilities benefited from various services at the ICRC-assisted center (compared to 475 in 2014). The services included the provision of 116 prostheses (53, or 32% for mine survivors).[10] 

The ICRC encouraged authorities and agencies to include physical rehabilitation services in a new national health plan and to establish a network for coordination. It also supported sports events on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities that raised awareness of the needs of persons with disabilities.[11]

Handicap International (HI) provided support to the Niger Disabled People’s Federation as well as local authorities in Niamey and Maradi to promote inclusive development processes. HI, also promoted the inclusion of children with disabilities in Niger's education system, through a West African regional project that also includes Burkina Faso, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Togo.[12]

Persons with disabilities were eligible for free healthcare. The constitution and law prohibit discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, education, and access to healthcare and other services. These provisions were generally enforced. Legislation mandates new buildings be accessible to persons with disabilities, but often architects and construction firms ignored this requirement and the law was not enforced. The labor code calls for promoting employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. There were no specific regulations for physical accessibility for persons with disabilities to transportation or education. Companies are required to hire a minimum of 5% of employees with disabilities or pay a penalty; however, implementation was lacking.

Niger ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 24 June 2008.