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

Article 5 Deadline: 31 December 2020
(Not clear if on track to meet deadline)

At the end of 2016, the Republic of Niger reported one suspected hazardous area (SHA) remained, with an estimated size of almost 0.2km². In 2016, Niger reported the completion of clearance of a mined area that had covered just over 39,000m², with the destruction of 1,075 mines, for which clearance had commenced in November 2014. Approximately 22,300m² of this was cleared during 2016. In 2015–2016, there were a number of reports of casualties and incidents involving the use of “landmines” and victim-activated IEDs.

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

At the end of 2016, Niger reported that only one SHA remained, with an estimated size of 196,253m² and believed to contain both antipersonnel and antivehicle mines.[1] This mined area had been discovered during survey of the mined area nearby that had been the subject of Niger’s extension request in 2016.

Previously, at the end of 2015, Niger had approximately 22,300m² of antipersonnel mine contamination remaining from a mined area identified in 2014, covering 39,000m².[2] The area, located
at Madama military post, was identified during an assessment mission in June 2011 and initially estimated to cover 2,400m².[3] Technical survey in 2014 concluded that the extent of contamination was considerably larger than the earlier estimate.[4] Niger deployed a team of 60 deminers to the area in November 2014, and reported that, as of November 2015, more than 17,000m² had been cleared with 750 mines destroyed.[5] On 25 October 2016, Niger confirmed that 39,304m² had been demined, with the destruction of 1,075 mines.[6] It is not known if the area as a whole has yet been formally released.

Five additional SHAs were also identified in Agadez region (in Achouloulouma, Blaka, Enneri, Orida, and Zouzoudinga) but they were believed to contain only antivehicle mines.[7] Niger reported that non-technical and technical survey in May 2014 had removed the suspicion of the presence of antipersonnel mines.[8]

The areas are all located in Niger’s Agadez region, in the north in a remote desert area, 450km from the rural community of Dirkou in Bilma department and reported to contain French MI AP ID 51 mines, which date back to the French colonial era.[9]

Niger’s contamination includes other areas that contain only antivehicle mines, which are the result of 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 southeastern 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.[10] Most reports appear to describe the use of victim-activated IEDs made by Boko Haram, which were either antipersonnel mines or antivehicle mines.[11] (See Niger’s casualty 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 first extension request in 2013 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 third extension request submitted in 2016 contains a vague workplan for 2016–2020, but does not contain details of annual clearance outputs or milestones.[12]

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 has reportedly had between 60 and 90 deminers operating at Madama since November 2014; in mid-2015, however, it acknowledged 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 by donating equipment to enable the deployment of more deminers and short-term technical support to improve Niger’s clearance productivity.[14] Niger has not accepted NPA’s offer of support.

Land Release

According to Niger, as of 25 October 2016, all 39,304m² of the confirmed mined area at Madama had been cleared, with the destruction of 1,075 mines.[15] Previously, Niger reported that from the initiation of operations at Madama in November 2014 to November 2015, a total of 17,000m² had been cleared and 750 mines destroyed.[16]

Article 5 Compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the four-year extension request granted by States Parties in 2016), Niger is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 31 December 2020.

States Parties decided to grant this second request while noting, as with its previous extension request, that Niger had failed to provide a detailed annual workplan for clearance and benchmarks against which to assess progress. As such, Niger was requested by States Parties to provide a revised detailed workplan with a list of all areas known or suspected to contain antipersonnel mines, along with monthly and annual projections of which areas would be addressed during the extension period. The importance of submitting an updated Article 7 report on an annual basis was further emphasized.[17]

Niger failed to submit a revised workplan by 30 April 2017, but at the convention’s intersessional meetings in June 2017, Niger informed States Parties of monthly and annual demining projections, beginning in July 2017 through to July 2020, including a total of 25,000m² to be addressed in 2017; 68,500m² in 2018; 69,247m² in 2019; and 35,000m² in 2020, for a total of 197,747m² to be addressed.[18]

At the intersessional meetings, Niger stated it was unable to submit an updated Article 7 report for calendar year 2016 as requested and that it was waiting for assistance from France, which was to be provided in the summer of 2017, to conduct a field evaluation in order to better refine its planning and inform the report.[19]

Niger’s Article 5 clearance deadline under its first extension request expired on 31 December 2015. It stated that due to greater than expected contamination at Madama and the identification of the other area of suspected mine contamination, it would not meet this deadline. On 12 November 2015, just a few weeks before the Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties, Niger submitted a second request for a five-year extension until 31 December 2020.

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.”[20] 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 and annual clearance projections during the period covered by the request.[21]

In April 2016, Niger re-submitted its extension request for a period of four years, until 31 December 2020.[22] The revised submission includes geo-coordinates for the Madama mined area, but fails 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 States Parties.[23]

In its extension requests, Niger has noted the 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.[24]

Niger funded all mine action activities in 2014–2015.[25] Under its latest extension request, Niger has said 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.[26]

Niger has made repeated appeals for international assistance for mine action and claimed it received no external support for its activities, save for assistance from France for medical evacuation in the case of demining accidents.[27] However, as noted above, following an assessment mission to Niger in May 2015, NPA submitted an offer to provide Niger with assistance, including the provision of personal protective equipment, so that more deminers could work simultaneously, as well as a technical advisor to evaluate current methodology and trial equipment, which it believed could significantly increase speed and productivity.[28] Danish Demining Group also offered to help Niger to complete clearance, but Niger did not respond to either organization’s offer.[29]

At the Fifteenth Meeting of States Parties in December 2016, France announced that it would provide support to contribute to the clearance of the area around Madama fort, set to begin in 2017.[30] In June 2017, Niger confirmed that it had accepted France’s offer for technical support for an evaluation of the terrain around Madama, which it stated would better inform its planning and allow it to prepare an updated Article 7 transparency report.[31]

The Monitor acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review (www.mineactionreview.org), which has conducted the mine action research in 2017, including on survey and clearance, and shared all its resulting landmine and cluster munition reports with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.