Somaliland
Mine Action
Contaminated by: mines (medium contamination) and other explosive remnants of war (ERW).
Somaliland cannot accede to the Mine Ban Treaty or the Convention on Cluster Munitions due to its political status.
Contamination
According to HALO Trust, as at October 2016, approximately 4.5km2 of confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) remained to be cleared in Somaliland and 8.2km2 required verification.[1]
HALO reported that progress in mine clearance was demonstrating significant socio-economic benefits for local communities, in terms of improved protection of livestock, access to water, markets, and grazing land, and for agriculture and the construction of a school.[2]
HALO Trust reported that 12 mine and ERW accidents occurred in 2015. (See the Casualties and Victim Assistance profile for further details.)
Program Management
The Somaliland Mine Action Center (SMAC) is responsible for mine action in Somaliland.
Officially, SMAC is under the authority of the vice-president of Somaliland, who heads the interministerial Mine Action Steering Committee.[3] In October 2016, HALO reported that there had not been an official stakeholder coordination meeting for at least 24 months, if not longer.[4]
In 2015, UNMAS supported, trained, and equipped national police in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) until October.[5] Somaliland requested assistance to support its five police EOD teams after UNMAS’s funding stopped.[6]
Strategic planning
Somaliland has a five-year strategic plan for mine action for 2011–2016, with goals focusing on strengthened national coordination capacity, an operational Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database, clearance of high-priority minefields, and systematic victim support.[7]
The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS)’s Explosive Hazard Management Strategic Framework for Somalia for 2015–2019 includes Somaliland.[8]
Operators
Three international NGOs operated in Somaliland in 2015: Danish Demining Group (DDG), the HALO Trust, and Mines Advisory Group (MAG).
In 2015, DDG did not conduct any mine or battle area clearance (BAC) operations, focusing instead on EOD and risk education.[9] HALO Trust’s mine clearance program in Somaliland was established in 1999. In 2015, it employed 434 demining personnel, 90 support staff, and 50 temporary local staff.[10] It deployed three mechanical teams and in 2015 introduced a Road Threat Reduction (RTR) mechanical verification of road tasks, carrying out survey, mine clearance, BAC, and EOD spot tasks.[11] In 2015, MAG continued its arms management and destruction (AMD) program in Somaliland.[12]
Quality management
HALO reported that SMAC did not receive any funding in 2015. As a result, no external quality assurance (QA) was carried out in 2015, and a backlog of QA, completions, and handovers developed over the course of the year. In 2016, SMAC was working to address this, enabled by funding from the national budget commencing in January 2016.[13]
Information management
In Somaliland, HALO led a project to assist SMAC to repopulate its IMSMA database with HALO’s historic country data. It was completed in June 2015 with support from UNMAS.[14]
Land Release (Mines)
Nearly 3.5km2 was released through survey and clearance in Somaliland in 2015. In 2014, nearly 3.5km2 was released in Somaliland by survey, clearance, and BAC.[15]
Survey (mines)
In 2015, HALO reported canceling three areas with a total size of nearly 0.1km2 (135,700m2) in Somaliland through non-technical survey in 2015 and confirming a further 2.5km2 as mined.[16]
Clearance (mines)
In Somaliland, of the 3,348,989m2 of mined area HALO released through clearance in 2015, just 1,641,630m2 contained antipersonnel mine contamination. HALO reported the destruction of a total of 104 antipersonnel mines, 44 antivehicle mines, and 192 items of unexploded ordinance (UXO) in its clearance operations in 2015, along with a further 12 antipersonnel mines destroyed in EOD spot tasks.[17] This is in contrast to the release through clearance of 2.2km2 in 2014, with the destruction of 29 antipersonnel mines, five antivehicle mines, and 35 items of UXO in the process.[18]
HALO believes that the clearance of all known and accessible explosive hazards in the region could be completed during 2018, slightly later than the end-2017 date it previously reported, and any residual tasks handed over to nationally funded SMAC/National Demining Agency for mine clearance or to police EOD teams, provided sufficient donor funding is maintained until 2018.[19] It stated that it hoped to complete clearance of all known antipersonnel mine contamination in Awdal during 2016.[20]
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.
[1] Email from Tom Griffiths, HALO Trust, 21 October 2016.
[2] Ibid., 25 May 2016.
[3] SMAC, “Annual Report 2011,” Hargeisa, January 2012, p. 2.
[4] Email from Tom Griffiths, HALO Trust, 21 October 2016.
[5] Email from Mohamed Abdulkadir Ahmed, SEMA, 14 October 2016; and UNMAS, “UNMAS in Somalia,” updated February 2016; and UNMAS, “2016 Portfolio of Mine Action Projects, Somalia,” undated.
[6] Email from Bill Marsden, Regional Director, East and Southern Africa, Mines Advisory Group (MAG), 14 October 2016.
[7] Response to questionnaire by Mohamed Abdulkadir Ahmed, SEMA, 19 June 2015.
[8] UNMAS, “2016 Portfolio of Mine Action Projects, Somalia,” undated.; and UNMAS, “UNMAS in Somalia,” undated.
[9] Email from Tammy Hall, DDG, 3 June 2016.
[10] UNMAS, “UN-suggested Explosive Hazard Management Strategic Framework 2015–2019,” undated, p. 12; and response to questionnaire by Tom Griffiths, HALO Trust, 20 May 2015.
[11] Email from Tom Griffiths, HALO Trust, 25 May 2016.
[12] Email from Bill Marsden, MAG, 12 May 2016; and MAG, “MAG Somalia: Humanitarian Action to reduce the impact of the conflict,” undated.
[13] Email from Tom Griffiths, HALO, 25 May 2016.
[14] Ibid.; and from Kjell Ivar Breili, UNMAS, 7 July 2015.
[15] Emails from Terje Eldøen, NPA, 5 June 2016; from Tom Griffiths, HALO, 25 May 2016; from Mohammed Abdulkadir Ahmed, SEMA, 14 June 2016; and from Kjell Ivar Breili, UNMAS, 7 July 2015; and response to questionnaire by Tom Griffiths, HALO, 20 May 2015.
[16] Email from Tom Griffiths, HALO, 25 May 2016.
[17] Ibid. HALO reported that of the total area cleared by HALO in 2015 (3,348,989m2 of antipersonnel and antivehicle contamination), 2,079,055m2 had no contamination from antivehicle mines, 824,811m2 had no contamination from either antipersonnel or antivehicle mines, and 702,585m2 had no contamination. It stated that due to the “sporadic and sparse nature of the remaining mine threat in Somaliland most clearance tasks are very low density and some yield no landmines or explosive items though this is likely to all devices having been initiated or lifted by the local community rather than incorrect survey.”
[18] Response to questionnaire by Tom Griffiths, HALO, 20 May 2015.
[19] Email from Tom Griffiths, HALO, 25 May 2016; and response to questionnaire, 20 May 2015.
[20] Email from Tom Griffiths, HALO, 25 May 2016.