Treaty status
Mine Ban Treaty	State Party Article 5 deadline: 1 March 2023 Not on track to meet deadline
Convention on Cluster Munitions	State Party Article 4 deadline: 1 March 2022 Unclear whether on track to meet deadline
Mine action management
National mine action management actors	The Mine Action Program of Afghanistan (MAPA) is led by Directorate of Mine Action (DMAC), which comes under the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority. Transition to national ownership was completed in 2017
UN agencies	United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in support of DMAC
Mine action strategic plan	Mine action plan 2016–2020
Mine action legislation	Draft mine action law has been submitted to the cabinet’s legislative committee for approval, as of April 2018
Mine action standards	National Mine Action Standards (NMAS) A policy paper on Abandoned Improvised Mines (AIM) was issued in May 2018
Operators in 2017	National: Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC) Demining Agency for Afghanistan (DAFA) Mine Clearance Planning Agency (MCPA) Mine Detection and Dog Centre (MDC) The Organization for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation (OMAR) AREA   International: Danish Demining Group (DDG) The HALO Trust The Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) Janus Demining Afghanistan (previously Sterling International)
Extent of contamination as of end 2017
Landmines	205km2 of antipersonnel mine contamination; 297km2 of antivehicle mine contamination: and 20km2 of improvised mine contamination.[1]However, there is no reliable estimate of the much larger areas assessed as contaminated by locally-produced mines
New landmine contamination in 2017	New victim-activated improvised mine contamination, extent unknown
Cluster munition remnants	6.51km2 Extent of contamination: medium (Discrepancies between data sources exist, see below)
ERW contamination	119km2 in 2017.[2] Additionally, 42 firing ranges covering 605km2 remain to be cleared[3]
Land release in 2017
Landmines	40.04km2 mined area cleared, of which 28.2km2 was affected by antipersonnel mines or a mixture of antipersonnel and antivehicle mines. 0.96km2 mined area reduced, of which 0.94km2 was antipersonnel mine or a mixture of antipersonnel and antivehicle mined area. 2.4km2 of suspected mined area was cancelled. 14,629 antipersonnel mines were destroyed[4]
Cluster munition remnants	2.82km2 cleared 368 submunitions destroyed (including 356 during Weapon Ammunition Disposal and Conventional Ammunition Disposal) (Discrepancies between data sources exist, see below)
Other ERW	42,820 other ERW destroyed[5]
Progress
Antipersonnel mines	Mine clearance has been severely hampered by a lack of funding since 2012 and insecurity. Moreover, Afghanistan also has to reassess its Article 5 obligations to take account of extensive contamination by improvised mines
Cluster munition remnants	Clearance of the areas reported in the Article 7 report is funded and expected to be completed by September 2019. However, any additional contamination identified is outside the scope of this project. Moreover, insecurity has prevented access to some of the contaminated areas in 2018

Note: ERW = explosive remnants of war.

Contamination

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is one of the countries most affected by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) resulting from the decade-long war of resistance that followed the Soviet invasion of 1979, the 1992–1996 internal armed conflict, 1996–2001 internal armed conflict, and the United States (US)-led coalition intervention in late 2001, which added considerable quantities of unexploded ordnance (UXO). Continuing conflict between the government, the Taliban and other armed groups is still adding contamination, particularly by improvised mines, which have overtaken legacy mined areas as the biggest humanitarian threat.[6]

Two different sets of figures were provided for the extent of antipersonnel mine contamination as of the end of 2017. According to data provided by the Department of Mine Action Coordination (DMAC), at the end of 2017, Afghanistan had 2,073 mined areas containing antipersonnel mines affecting 205km². This represented a second successive year of net decline in the extent of antipersonnel contamination. But surveys continue to find new areas of legacy mine contamination. DMAC added 92km² of mine and ERW contamination to the database in 2017 and reported 20km² affected by abandoned improvised mines, though it has yet to reach a reliable estimate of much larger areas assessed as contaminated by such mines (see section on improvised mines below).[7]

Remaining contamination at the end of 2013, 2015, and 2017 according to DMAC[8]

Note: N/R = not reported.
* Abandoned devices only.
** 2017 data includes 18 areas with cluster munition remnants over 6.86km².

In contrast, Afghanistan’s latest Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 transparency report said its Article 5 obligations at the end of 2017 comprised 2,130 hazardous areas covering almost 225km² (see table below), 7.45km² less than at the start of the year.[9]

Antipersonnel mine contamination by region (end-2017) according to the 2017 Article 7 report[10]

Region	Mined areas	Area (km2)
Northeast	703	62.94
Central	595	39.82
South	176	44.70
West	67	34.00
Southeast	199	18.77
North	286	15.93
East	104	8.50
Total	2,130	224.66

 

DMAC reported that 143 of Afghanistan’s 400 districts had been cleared of mines by the end of 2017. The Mine Action Programme of Afghanistan (MAPA) had declared six districts of Badakhshan to be mine free in April 2017. HALO Trust reported in February 2018 that the western province of Herat was free of mines after years of operations involving clearance of more than 600 mined areas. Land release had opened up 40km² of farmland.[11]

DMAC estimates of antivehicle mine contamination have risen steadily as a result of survey in the last five years, reaching nearly 300km² by the end of 2017 (see table above).

Improvised mines

Afghanistan’s Article 5 clearance obligations have been significantly increased by improvised mines, which have also contributed to a sharp upturn in casualties in recent years. Afghanistan now identifies them as the greatest challenge for the mine action sector.[12] (See Afghanistan’s casualty profile for details.)

At the request of the National Security Council, DMAC’s implementing partners conducted a rapid assessment of 22 provinces at the end of 2016. Implementing partners reported five provinces as inaccessible.[13] In the remaining 17, they identified 270 areas affected by post-2001 ERW, covering an estimated 421km², in which antipersonnel mines accounted for 5.3km² and improvised devices, including improvised pressure-plate mines, affected 228km². This included almost 55km² classified as high risk, mostly in Kandahar, Helmand, and Urozgan provinces, as well as 3.5km² of medium risk and 170km² as low risk. Antivehicle mines affected 90,000m² and ERW were nearly 188km².[14]

The MAPA entered the assessment results into the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database in late 2017.[15] At the end of March 2018, DMAC estimated that improvised pressure-plate mines affected an area of 248km².[16]

In 2018, DMAC replaced the term pressure-plate IED (PP-IED) with Abandoned Improvised Mine (AIM) in its data.[17] The term PP-IED continued to be used by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).[18]

Cluster Munition Contamination

The Directorate of Mine Action Contamination (DMAC) reported that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan had 6.51km² of cluster munition contamination at the end of 2017.[19]

DMAC said one cluster munition hazardous area affecting 1.86km² was added to the database during the year.[20]

All the identified sites are affected by remnants of the 1,228 cluster munitions containing some 248,056 BLU-97B submunitions dropped by the US between October 2001 and early 2002.[21] Cluster munition remnants are said to affect less than 7,000 people, but block access to grazing and agricultural land.[22]

Cluster munition contamination, however, is more widespread than the clearly defined US cluster strike sites. Soviet forces used cluster munitions during the decade-long war of resistance to the Soviet-backed government and demining operators continue to find unexploded submunitions on demining and battle area clearance tasks.[23]

Other explosive contamination

The estimate of ERW contamination reported by the DMAC has more than tripled since 2013 to 119km² in 2017, not including NATO firing ranges, but including cluster munition remnants. (See table in the mine contamination section.) DMAC reported 42 ranges covering 605km² remained to be cleared.[24]

Afghanistan reported massive ERW contamination in its Article 7 report for 2017, which has continued to rise as a result of continuing conflict. It reported total ERW contamination at around 1,674km² as of the end of 2017, reporting “legacy contamination” of 588km² dating back to before 2001 and 1,086km² that occurred after 2001.[25]

Program Management

The Mine Action Program of Afghanistan (MAPA) is led by DMAC, which comes under the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority. It receives operational support in planning, prioritizing, and information management from “UNMAS in support of DMAC” (UNMAS/DMAC).[26]

DMAC staff increased to 159 working in 15 departments by the end of 2017 after personnel transitioned from UN to DMAC contracts.[27] Department heads were due to continue as UNMAS advisers to DMAC until also coming under DMAC management by the end of June 2018, though the transition process was completed a month early.[28] A total of 240 personnel were still employed in UNMAS/DMAC in 2017, but the number was due to fall to 209 in 2018.[29]

Strategic planning

Afghanistan‘s Article 5 deadline extension request submitted in 2012 and revised in August of that year, set out a plan to clear all known areas contaminated by mines and ERW by March 2023. It consolidated the 4,442 mine and ERW hazards then remaining into 308 projects to facilitate monitoring of progress and resource mobilization, an approach that continues to shape mine action planning.[30] However, the extension request targets were soon overtaken by a sharp drop in donor funding, which fell by more than half between 2011 and 2014, and by the addition of extensive contamination by improvised mines, expanding the extent of Afghanistan’s Article 5 obligations.

A five-year plan for 2016–2020, adopted in January 2016, did not amend extension request clearance targets but set four strategic goals:[31]

• Facilitate development;
• Engage with other sectors;
• Reduce the impact of mines and ERW, and mitigate the impact of mine incidents; and
• Mainstream gender and diversity to ensure participation in, and shared benefits of, mine action.

The plan set out 33 objectives and 111 associated actions. These included incorporating mine action into Afghanistan’s National Priority Programs and Sustainable Development Goals; integrating mine action into the activities of line ministries, improving fundraising; completing survey; and keeping implementation of Afghanistan’s Article 5 extension on track. The plan acknowledged that continued use of improvised mines on the present scale could prevent Afghanistan from meeting its Article 5 clearance deadline.[32]

DMAC’s concept paper on improvised mines reported that none was cleared in 2017 but proposed clearance of the entire ERW-affected area of 421km² identified in 17 provinces at a projected cost of US$146 million. DMAC continued to discuss approaches to tackling improvised mines with operators and was due to roll out a strategy for clearance in 2018.[33]

DMAC also produced a concept paper in 2017 proposing clearance of all remaining antivehicle mine contamination, consisting at the time of the report (mid-2017) of 1,096 hazardous areas covering 292km² across 26 provinces. Contamination consists mainly of minimum-metal mines laid randomly over large areas and sometimes at a depth that can be difficult for conventional detectors to locate. The paper recommended clearance by front-end loaders with mechanical follow-up at an estimated cost of almost $128 million.[34]

In 2018, Afghanistan expected to release almost 64km² of contamination from antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines, and ERW (57.5km² through clearance and 6.4km² through area reduction). Two-thirds of the area to be cleared was in central areas and the northeast of the country.[35]

A plan to clear the cluster munition-contaminated areas that are reported in Afghanistan’s Article 7 report for 2017 is included in its Mine Ban Treaty workplan, and is funded.[36] However, the funded plan does not cover any additional cluster munition-contaminated areas that have been or would be subsequently identified.[37]

Legislation and standards

DMAC has prepared draft mine action legislation to be included as an annex to a 2005 law banning the use, acquisition, and stockpiling of weapons, ammunition, and explosive items. After years of review by the Ministry of Justice, the draft has reportedly been referred to the cabinet’s legislative committee for approval.[38]

An “Abandoned Improvised Mine (AIM) technical working group,” set up in November 2017, has been assigned the task of drafting standard terminology and policy for tackling improvised mines. A policy paper on AIMs issued by DMAC in May 2018 after consultations with implementing partners set out 11 principles to be followed by implementing partners.[39] These included the following:

• All survey and clearance should be conducted in accordance with MAPA principles of neutrality and MAPA members shall not participate in or facilitate counter-IED activities, including providing information on AIMs to security forces.
• Afghan national mine action standards are the default standards for AIM activities but operators should also draft specific standard operating procedures for AIM-related operations.
• Each organization and team needs DMAC accreditation for each type of activity.
• AIM activities should receive a high level of internal and external quality assurance (QA).
• AIM clearance should only be conducted with the full consent of the community and all relevant actors, and should not be conducted in areas of ongoing conflict.
• AIM activities should be recorded on IMSMA, including information on access, level of conflict, and details of each device or suspect device.
• All survey should be conducted by teams trained and accredited for AIM non-technical survey.
• If new AIM contamination is suspected in areas that were previously cleared or identified as clear, resurvey should be coordinated by DMAC with full consent of all relevant actors and include an assessment of the level of conflict.

Quality management

DMAC had 26 QA/quality control (QC) staff working in seven regions, which conducted 2,399 monitoring visits in 2017. The staff reported 57 major and 59 minor non-conformities.[40] Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) operations in Afghanistan’s remote northern province of Badakhshan are accessed mainly through Tajikistan, and QA is conducted by the Tajikistan National Mine Action Center (TNMAC) on behalf of DMAC to avoid travel and visa delays.[41]

DMAC also conducted external QA/QC of firing range clearance with 21 quality management (QM) inspectors who carried out 2,708 visits in 2017 during which they reported three major non-conformities.[42]

Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) was accredited by DMAC in November 2017 to conduct a Third Party Monitoring project funded by the US Department of State to monitor performance of all implementing partners receiving US funding.[43]

Operators

The MAPA employed a total of 7,156 people at the end of 2017 but the sector has been facing severe financial constraints, and in 2018, DMAC expected the number would fall to 5,376.[44]

Mine clearance is conducted by six national and three international NGOs.[45] Long-established national NGOs are: Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC), the Demining Agency for Afghanistan (DAFA), the Mine Clearance Planning Agency (MCPA), the Mine Detection and Dog Centre (MDC), and the Organization for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation (OMAR). AREA, a national NGO accredited in 2014, became operational at the end of 2016. International NGOs active in survey and clearance in 2017 were Danish Demining Group (DDG), The HALO Trust, and FSD. As noted above, NPA started work in 2017 providing QA/QC of projects funded by the US Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (WRA).

Land Release (mines and ERW)

The MAPA cleared a total of 40km² of overall mined area in 2017, less than the 49.2km² cleared in 2016. A significant proportion of 2017 clearance concerned land contaminated only by antivehicle mines. The amount of cleared land affected only by antipersonnel mines or mixed antipersonnel/antivehicle mines amounted to 28.2km².[46] This represents a slight increase in antipersonnel mine or mixed mine clearance, compared to the equivalent 27.1km² in 2016.[47]

Mine and ERW survey to identify and cancel hazardous areas in 2017

DMAC reported adding mine and ERW contamination totaling almost 93km²to the database in 2017. Of this, 62km² was mined area, 46 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) affecting 47km² and 97 confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) covering almost 15km² (see table below). It also reported that operators cancelled 39 suspected mined areas covering 2.4km² in 2017.

New suspected or confirmed mined areas and battle areas identified in 2017[48]

 

DMAC had planned survey of 24 districts in Year 1396 (2017–2018) under the “Mine and ERW Impact Free Community Survey” (MEIFCS) started in 2012, but it was held back by a lack of funding. The only recorded MEIFICS activity was undertaken by FSD, which surveyed 13 communities in Badakhshan.[49] MCPA deployed nine teams to conduct non-technical survey on ERW contamination resulting from fighting in 24 districts across 12 provinces.[50]

Mine and ERW clearance and reduction through technical survey in 2017

MAPA reported release of 41km² of overall mined area through clearance and area reduction in 2017 (see table below). It included a total of 29.1km² affected by antipersonnel mines or a mixture of antipersonnel and antivehicle mines, of which 28.2km² was released through clearance and 0.94km² through area reduction.[51] No clearance of improvised mines was reported in 2017 despite growing attention to the issue.[52]

Afghan implementing partners were mainly responsible for an upturn in clearance in 2016 and accounted for most of the downturn in 2017, mainly as a result of financial constraints. In 2017, six national implementing partners collectively cleared 17.4km², little more than half the area they cleared in 2016, with DAFA and MDC in particular experiencing loss of contracts. Only AREA, which started demining in 2016, significantly expanded operations in 2017 (clearing 1.3km²).[53]

HALO Trust increased its area clearance by more than a quarter in 2017 and accounted for more than half the total mined area cleared by the MAPA. The increase was made possible by increased funding, which saw HALO add around 870 staff over the year, bringing the total to 3,420 (of whom 2,975 were engaged in operations). HALO expanded its area of operations to include the southern province of Kandahar in addition to its work in the center, north, northeast, southeast, and the west. In 2018, HALO completed training of its first team in survey, clearance, and disposal of improvised mines.[54]

DDG, with three clearance teams and one survey team and 35 field staff, implemented one DANIDA contract in 2017, clearing almost one-third less land than in 2016 but destroying more mines. It won an additional contract in 2017 from WRA but started work in 2018.[55]

FSD increased capacity from three demining teams to four in 2017 and increased the amount of land released through clearance by more than 60% to 0.5km², as well as destroying more than 6,500 antipersonnel mines.[56]

Mine clearance and reduction in 2017[57]

Operator	Areas	Area cleared (m2)	Area reduced (m2)	AP mines destroyed	AV mines destroyed	UXO destroyed
AREA	21	1,295,095	0	195	5	80
ATC	82	4,050,832	252,471	924	18	4,197
DAFA	10	3,330,914	0	0	49	523
DDG	7	227,636	70,581	81	3	139
FSD	6	533,688	0	6,526	0	114
HALO	336	21,919,980	0	6,052	139	1,007
MCPA	41	2,836,400	114,895	180	17	51
MDC	16	2,207,307	0	2	21	44
OMAR	58	3,643,027	523,784	643	10	1,069
Total	577	40,044,879	961,731	14,603	262	7,224

Note: AP = antipersonnel; AV = antivehicle.

 

Clearance and reduction of mined area containing antipersonnel mines in 2017[58]

Operator	Area cleared (m2)	Area reduced (m2)	AP mines destroyed	AV mines destroyed	UXO destroyed
AREA	1,295,095	0	195	5	80
ATC	3,302,107	240,108	924	0	4,114
DAFA	11,320	0	0	0	0
DDG	227,588	70,581	81	0	139
FSD	533,688	0	6,524	0	114
HALO	17,674,607	0	5,975	11	964
MCPA	1,765,792	101,508	148	1	47
MDC	4,817	0	2	0	0
OMAR	3,362,203	523,653	643	0	1,064
Total	28,177,217	935,850	14,492	17	6,522

Note: AP = antipersonnel; AV = antivehicle.

 

By the end of 2017, Afghanistan said it had closed 64 firing ranges and released 555km² of firing range land, destroying in the process 26 antipersonnel mines, 50 antivehicle mines, and 93,228 items of UXO.[59]

Land Release (cluster munitions)

Cluster munition survey in 2017

No area of cluster munition remnants was reported to have been released by survey in 2017. However, DMAC said one cluster munition hazardous area affecting 1.86km² was added to the database during the year.[60]

Cluster munition clearance in 2017

DMAC reported that a total of 2,822,647m² of cluster munition-contaminated land was cleared, resulting in the destruction of 12 cluster munition remnants. DAFA cleared 1,208,447m² with the destruction of 12 cluster munition remnants, and AREA cleared 1,625,200m², but no cluster munition remnants were destroyed. HALO destroyed five cluster munition remnants during explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) tasks, and 356 during weapon ammunition disposal (WAD) and conventional ammunition disposal (CAD).[61]

Deminer safety

DMAC reported two deminers were killed and one injured in the course of demining in 2017 but 14 security incidents reported in 2017 inflicted greater losses. This included one AREA deminer who was murdered by anti-government elements in Nangahar province in September. A total of 97 staff were abducted but later returned. Operators also reported equipment losses, including detectors, VHF radios, and mobile phones.[62]

Article 5 Compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the 10-year extension granted by States Parties in 2013), Afghanistan is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2023. Afghanistan will not meet this deadline.

The extension request Afghanistan submitted in 2012 is not on track to fulfil its targets. A sharp downturn in donor funding since 2012 resulted in loss of MAPA capacity and a drop in combined antivehicle and antipersonnel mine clearance rates (see table above), although annual antipersonnel mine clearance rates have increased over the last three successive years. To catch up, DMAC called for funding of US$110 million in 1396 (2017–2018) but received just short of $40 million. The MAPA required $76 million in 1397 (2018–2019) to support release of 144km² of mine and ERW contamination but expected to receive funding at the same level as the previous year or slightly more.[63]

Afghanistan also has to reassess its Article 5 obligations to take account of extensive contamination by improvised mines. The extent of this new contamination has yet to be determined by survey but preliminary estimates in 17 of 22 affected provinces identified 152 hazards covering approximately 228km². Moreover, mitigating the threat is obstructed by insecurity which renders some areas inaccessible to deminers, and even where there is access, clearance teams will be limited to tackling only the hazardous areas where they have the consent of all relevant parties.

Combined antipersonnel and antivehicle mine clearance in 2013–2017

 

Antipersonnel mine clearance in 2013–2017[64]