Summary: State Party Cameroon ratified the convention on 12 July 2012. It adopted national legislation in December 2016 to prohibit cluster munitions. Cameroon has attended almost every meeting of the convention and voted in favor of key United Nations (UN) resolutions on its implementation, most recently in December 2017.

Cameroon provided an initial transparency report for the convention in August 2014, confirmingthat it has not used or produced cluster munitions. It is retaining its stockpile of six cluster munitions and 906 submunitions for training purposes.

Policy

The Republic of Cameroon signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 15 December 2009, ratified on 12 July 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 January 2013.

Cameroon has reported various sections of its Penal Code as well as relevant decrees and existing laws under national implementation measures applicable to the convention.[1] On 14 December 2016, the National Assembly adopted legislation that prohibits the use, development, manufacturing, acquisition, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions.[2] During the Seventh Meeting of States Parties of the convention in Geneva, Cameroon announced its intention to establish a “national committee on weapons” to implement the new law, which includes penal and fiscal sanctions.[3]

Cameroon provided an initial Article 7 transparency report in August 2014, and submitted updated reports in 2015, 2016, and most recently in April 2017.[4] The 2016 national legislation mandates the Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs to provide annual Article 7 transparency reports by April 1 of each year, detailing the type, quantity, and lot number of cluster munitions in Cameroon’s possession.[5]

Cameroon participated in the Oslo Process and joined in the consensus adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin in May 2008, but could not sign the convention in Oslo in December 2008 due to difficulties in securing authorization.[6] It signed the convention at the UN in New York in December 2009 and ratified on 12 July 2012 after adopting ratification legislation in March 2011.[7]

Cameroon has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, most recently the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2017. It attended the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015 and intersessional meetings in 2013–2014. Cameroon has also participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in August 2016.[8]

Since 2015, Cameroon voted in favor of key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions promoting implementation and universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, most recently in December 2017.[9]

Cameroon has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2017.[10]

Cameroon has elaborated its views on certain important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. In 2011, the Ministry for External Relations stated, “Cameroon has never produced, used, or stockpiled, let alone served as a platform for the transit or transfer of cluster munitions. It therefore approves a) the prohibition on the transfer of cluster munitions; b) the prohibition on the assistance in joint military operations; c) the prohibition on foreign stockpile of cluster munitions; d) the prohibition on investments in cluster munitions.”[11]

Cameroon is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

Cameroon has stated on several occasions that it has not used or produced cluster munitions.[12]

Cameroon imported or otherwise acquired a stockpile of cluster munitions produced in France in 1983, according to the lot numbers.[13]

Cameroon’s 2016 implementation legislation states that the transit of any arms, including cluster munitions, on national territory is subject to the approval of the president.[14] The new law also authorizes the transfer of cluster munitions to other states for the sole purpose of destruction.[15]

Stockpiling and stockpile destruction

In its initial Article 7 transparency report provided in August 2014, Cameroon reported a stockpile of six BLG-66 Belouga cluster bombs and 906 “grenades” or explosive submunitions.[16]

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Cameroon must destroy all its stockpiled cluster munitions as soon as possible, but not later than 1 January 2021.

Cameroon never indicated that it planned to destroy the stockpile, but instead has stated via the initial transparency report and subsequent annual updates that the stockpile of six cluster bombs and 906 submunitions has all been retained for research and training purposes.[17]

Retention

Cameroon is retaining six BLG-66 Belouga cluster bombs and 906 “grenades” or explosive submunitions for research and training purposes. It has reported the same number and types of retained cluster munitions since 2014, without change, indicating that it has not consumed or otherwise destroyed any of these munitions in research or training exercises.

Cameroon’s 2016 implementing legislation permits the retention of a “limited” number of cluster munitions and submunitions for training related to the detection and destruction of cluster munitions.[18] The law does not elaborate what it means by “limited.”