Notes: CHA = confirmed hazardous area; SHA = suspected hazardous area; ERW = explosive remnants of war; UXO = unexploded ordnance.

Contamination

The exact extent of contamination from cluster munition remnants in the Republic of Sudan is not fully known. According to the NMAC, at the start of 2018, only two areas were suspected to contain cluster munition contamination in Sudan, one in South Kordofan and the other in West Kordofan state, each with an estimated size of 1km².[4]

Previously, in April 2017, the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) reported the presence of two AO-1Sch submunitions in North Darfur (at Al Mengara village in Al Liet locality). The villagers reported that the bombs were dropped in 2008, had been identified by UNAMID at that time, and that the military had stated that they would dispose of the items.[5] The Sudanese Armed Forces Engineers destroyed the items in February 2018 and no further cluster munitions were reported or identified.[6]

Previously, the most recent estimate of contamination dated back to June 2011, when the UN Mine Action Office (UNMAO), which was overseeing mine action operations at the time, reported nine areas suspected to be contaminated with unexploded submunitions. UNMAO asserted that 81 areas had been released (see table below).[7]

Cluster munition-contaminated areas as of June 2011[8]

In 2017, NMAC, which assumed full national ownership for implementing mine action activities upon UNMAO’s closure in June 2011, reported that of the nine open areas reported by UNMAO in 2011, seven were cleared in 2011–2013.[9] In March 2018, NMAC reported that the size of the seven areas cleared during this period totaled 15,318m² and that 13 PM-1 submunitions were found and destroyed during clearance.[10]

NMAC has not reported any survey or clearance of cluster munition remnants since 2013. It stated that no new cluster munition contamination was recorded in 2016–2017.[11]

In the 1990s, Sudanese government forces are believed to have sporadically air-dropped cluster munitions during its civil war with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). Government forces were reported as having used several types of cluster munitions, including Spanish-manufactured HESPIN 21; US-manufactured M42 and Mk118 (Rockeye), and a Brazilian copy; Chinese Type-81 dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM); Chilean-made PM-1; and Soviet-manufactured PTAB-1.5 and AO-1SCh submunitions.[12]

In 2012 and 2015, use of cluster munitions was recorded in five separate attacks on villages in South Kordofan state. Each attack involved air-dropped RBK-500 cluster munitions containing AO-2.5RT submunitions.[13] In 2013–2015, the UN published reports of evidence of previous use of cluster munitions in Darfur, the stockpiling of RBK-500 cluster munitions and AO-2.5RT submunitions by the Sudanese Air Force, and fluctuating stock levels indicative of use for operations or for training.[14] (See Sudan’s Cluster Munition Ban profile for more details.)

Other explosive remnants of war and landmines

Sudan also has a significant problem with antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines, and UXO, primarily as a result of the more than 20 years of civil war that led to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 and South Sudan’s independence in July 2011 (see the 2017 Sudan Mine Action profile for details).

As of June 2018, eight of Sudan’s 18 states were contaminated with mines/ERW, with Blue Nile and South Kordofan states the most heavily affected.[15] Mines and ERW continued to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis, where in parts of South Kordofan, chronic malnutrition surpassed emergency levels, and in Blue Nile state, more than 40% of households were severely nutritionally insecure.[16]

While limited cluster munition contamination has, in the past, been identified in Darfur, there is significant contamination from other ERW, which continue to pose a serious threat to civilians, UNAMID peacekeepers, and to the delivery of humanitarian aid.[17]

As of April 2018, Sudan’s three eastern states had been declared free of mines and ERW, following 12 years of clearance efforts. Clearance in Gadaref state was completed in May 2016 and in Red Sea state in May 2017, while Kassala state was declared clear of mines and ERW on 4 April 2018.[18] In Darfur, two localities in West Darfur have been declared free of ERW: Forobaranga in April 2017 and Kereinik in February 2018.[19]

Since South Sudan’s independence, new conflicts in Abyei and in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states have resulted in increased UXO contamination in Sudan.[20] In 2018, the extent of mine and ERW contamination in areas of Abyei and the border area between Sudan and South Sudan remained unknown due to persistent conflict and ongoing restrictions on access.[21]

Program Management

The Sudanese National Mine Action Authority (NMAA) and NMAC manage Sudan’s mine action program.

In 2015, UNMAS resumed its lead in supporting UN mine action efforts in Sudan and its role in providing assistance and technical support to NMAC following an invitation from the Sudanese government.[22]

In Darfur, under the umbrella of UNAMID, UNMAS works under the name of the Ordnance Disposal Office (ODO) in direct support of UNAMID priorities.[23] In 2017, Dynasafe MineTech Limited (DML), a commercial company, was awarded a new UN contract for the Fiscal Year 2017–2018 to conduct ERW rapid-response clearance and to provide mentoring support to national Multi-Task Teams (MTTs) in Darfur.[24]

Strategic planning

As of March 2018, NMAC reported that it was coordinating with the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) to review its national strategic mine action plan, which is set to expire in 2019.[25] The current National Mine Action Plan for 2016–2019 to meet Sudan’s obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty does not specifically address cluster munition remnants.[26]

Standards

In March 2018, NMAC reported that the review of the National Mine Action Standards (NMAS) was in its final stages but had not yet been completed.[27] According to NMAC, draft standards are shared with all partners and mine action operators during their accreditation process. They do not contain a specific chapter on cluster munitions.[28]

Information management

In March 2018, NMAC reported that a process of upgrading the software of its International Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database to a newer version, IMSMA-NG, remained in progress, with assistance from the GICHD. Significant efforts to correct errors in the database were also ongoing.[29] The database does not contain information on the disputed Abyei area.[30]

Operators

National demining operators are JASMAR for Human Security, National Units for Mine Action and Development (NUMAD), and FPDO. In 2017, a total of eight manual clearance teams (MCTs), 11 MTTs, two mechanical teams, and two mine detection dog (MDD) teams were deployed for mine action operations.[31] This was a significant increase compared with 2016, when a total of five MCTs, nine MTTs, four mine action teams, one mechanical team, and two MDD teams were deployed.

Commercial operator DML, contracted to clear ERW in Darfur and to provide support for national MTTs, deployed two seven-strong rapid-response teams and a mentoring capacity of six persons, for a total staff of 29.[32]

In 2017, no international NGO was demining in Sudan. Since 2015, NMAC has made repeated calls for other international NGO operators to undertake mine action in Sudan.[33] Previously, two international demining NGOs with programs in Sudan closed operations owing to government restrictions that impeded their operations.[34] DanChurchAid (DCA) ended its operations in 2012.[35] In June 2012, the Sudanese government’s Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) ordered Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and six other NGOs that provided humanitarian aid to leave Gadaref, Kassala, and Red Sea states in eastern Sudan.[36] Following months of negotiations with HAC and donors, MAG ended its operations in Sudan, leaving in early 2013.[37]

Land Release

Cluster munition remnants

NMAC reported that no cluster munition-specific survey or clearance took place in 2017.[38] NMAC does not distinguish between different types of ERW in its reporting on clearance and has not reported any survey or clearance of cluster munition contamination since 2013. As noted above, however, it clarified in 2018 that in 2011–2013, seven areas with a size of just over 15,300m² were cleared with the destruction of 13 PM-1 submunitions.[39]

Other explosive remnants of war

In 2017, a total of just under 2.85km² of battle area was released in Sudan, an increase from close to 1.52km² in 2016. Overall, reported land release fell in 2017, however, to a total of just under 3.9km², compared to just over 6.4km² in 2016.[40] NMAC reported that the increase in battle area clearance (BAC) in 2017 was due to a shift in focus to clearing high-impact ERW contamination in Blue Nile state close to communities where accidents were being reported. This amounted to just over 2km² out of the total 2.85km² of battle area cleared, whereas the focus in 2016 was on clearance of mines from Sudan’s three eastern states.[41]

2018 progress

In June 2018, NMAC stated that it had deployed a team to address the remaining cluster munition hazardous area in West Kordofan state, located in Aghabish village, Lagawa locality.[42]

Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 Compliance

Ongoing conflict and a lack of access to significant areas of remaining contamination, along with a lack of recent data or records of cluster munition contamination disaggregated from UXO, make it difficult to estimate when Sudan could complete cluster munition survey and clearance.

Significant progress has, though, been made to address remaining mine and ERW contamination. Notably, in 2018, Kassala state was officially declared free of mines and ERW on 4 April, joining Red Sea state in 2017 and Gadaref state in 2016, to make all three of Sudan’s formerly contaminated eastern states free of contamination. In March 2018, Sudan submitted a request for an extension of its Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 clearance deadline for a period of four years to 1 April 2023. The 2018 extension request does not contain any mention of remaining cluster munition contamination or plans for survey and clearance of these areas.

The Monitor acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review (www.mineactionreview.org), which has conducted the primary mine action research in 2018 and shared all its country-level landmine reports (from“Clearing the Mines 2018”) and country-level cluster munition reports (from “Clearing Cluster Munition Remnants 2018”) with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.