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

Mine Contamination

As of December 2017, the Republic of Chad reported it had identified seven CHAs and 421 SHAs, covering a combined total of 122km².[1] These figures should be approached with caution, however, as we can see from the table below, the size and extent of mined areas varies widely; from Salamat with one CHA and seven SHAs said to total only 592m² all the way up to 185 SHAs in Tibesti totaling 75km². In December 2015, Chad reported it had identified a total of 123 mined areas, albeit from a partial national survey.[2] It expected more contaminated areas to be identified in four regions: Borkou, Ennedi, Moyen Chari, and Tibesti. In May 2014, Chad reported 113 areas confirmed to contain mines with a total size of 103.5km².[3]

Chad also has a significant problem with ERW; in 2014, it identified 221 ERW-contaminated areas covering 2.5km².[4]

Chad’s contamination is the result of the 1973 Libyan invasion and 30 years of internal conflict. Chad’s mine action plan for 2014–2019 indicated that, based on a national technical survey conducted in 2010–2012 and information available as of May 2014, it faced a total of 787 hazardous areas covering 1,236km². This comprised 123 mined areas across seven regions (covering 104km²) and 664 ERW-contaminated areas across nine regions (covering 1,132km²). Chad reported that it had already addressed 10 mined areas and 443 ERW-contaminated areas.[5]

As of the end of 2017, three of Chad’s 23 regions contained confirmed mined areas, while a further seven had SHAs, as set out in table below. Borkou, Ennedi, and Tibesti are located in northern Chad at the border with Libya; Sila is located at the border with Sudan; and Moyen-Chari is in southern Chad at the border with the Central African Republic.

Mine contamination by region (at end 2017)[6]

Mines and ERW are said to obstruct safe access to housing, roads, pastures, water points, and mining areas, especially in northern Chad. Contamination is an ongoing threat to local populations and its negative impact on the socio-economic development of Borkou, Ennedi, and Tibesti, which are among its poorest regions, is particularly severe.[7] Mined roads obstruct key transport routes, and diversions opened through potentially contaminated areas present risks to local populations seeking to access basic state services, such as medical coverage and higher education and training facilities, provided mainly in regional capitals.[8] In regions to the south, east, and west, the impact of mines is thought to be relatively low, with the primary threat coming from ERW: both unexploded ordnance (UXO) and abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO).[9]

Several antivehicle mine attacks were reported in Chad in August 2016[10] and August 2017.[11] In April 2018, soldiers were killed and wounded during a series of operations in the Lake Chad region against Boko Haram forces who used landmines and other forms of attack.[12] In 2017, Chad sent risk education teams to inform the affected population in the Lake Chad region about the dangers of improvised devices and other ERW.[13] (See Chad’s casualty and mine ban profiles for further details.)

Cluster Munition Contamination

The extent of cluster munition contamination remaining in Chad is unknown, but is not believed to be heavy. Following the end of armed conflict with Libya in 1987, unexploded submunitions and cluster munition containers were found in the three northern provinces of Borkou, Ennedi, and Tibesti; in the Biltine department in Wadi Fira region in the northeast; and east of the capital, N’Djamena.[14] In 2011, MAG found unexploded Soviet antitank PTAB-1.5 submunitions during survey in an area close to Faya Largeau.[15]

The most recent discovery of cluster munition remnants was in 2015, when MAG identified and destroyed a limited number of cluster munition remnants, including two empty RBK-250-275 cluster bomb containers in the Tibesti region and an AO-1SCh submunition in the Borkou region.[16] In January 2015, four children (three girls and one boy) were reportedly injured after handling a submunition in Faya Largeau.[17]

In May 2017, both MAG and HI reported that they had not seen any evidence of significant cluster munition contamination remaining in Chad. However, MAG emphasized that the majority of the Tibesti region, thought to be one of the most heavily contaminated regions with mines and ERW, had still to be surveyed, and there were few local informants who might know of contamination. It also noted the possibility that cluster munition remnants might be found around former Libyan military bases.[18]

In 2012, Chad stated that while the precise extent of cluster munition contamination was not known, it was certain cluster munitions had been used in the Fada region and highly likely they had been used in other parts of the north. Chad said that the Tibesti region was being surveyed to determine the extent of the contamination.[19] In 2014, Chad reported that, after Libyan troops withdrew in 1987, members of the French Sixth Engineers Regiment discovered and subsequently destroyed cluster munition remnants around Libyan positions, prior to the building of the national mine action center. It reiterated its suspicion of additional contamination in the Tibesti region.[20]

Program Management

The national mine action program is managed by what is effectively a national mine action center, the National High Commission for Demining (Haut Commissariat National de Déminage, HCND).[21] The National Demining Center (Centre National de Déminage, CND), which earlier conducted clearance operations, appears to have been dissolved. In July 2017, a new governmental decree restructured the HCND, reducing the number of personnel by more than half from 744 to 329.[22]

In September 2017, the European Union (EU) agreed to support a new four-year mine action project (PRODECO) in Chad.[23] As part of this project, HI is focusing on survey and clearance in the Borkou and Ennedi regions while MAG is working in the Tibesti and Lake Chad regions.[24]The targets for the PRODECO project for survey and clearance are to conduct non-technical survey in 30 zones in the Lake Chad and Tibesti region, to release 2.7km² of mined land in Borkou, Tibesti, and Ennedi, to release 200,000m² of mined land along roads in Tibesti, and, in the Lake Chad and Tibesti regions, to release 50,000m² of land contaminated with other ERW or conduct 100 spot tasks.[25] A third international operator, FSD, is to provide technical support, training, and capacity-building to the HCND, including support for the use of the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA).[26]

Strategic planning

Following the request of the Mine Ban Treaty’s Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties, the CND elaborated a national mine action plan for 2014–2019, with technical support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The plan gave details on the number, location, and size of remaining mined areas, and provided the following timeline:

• In June 2015–June 2019, operations would be conducted in Borkou;
• In January 2015–April 2019, operations would be conducted in Ennedi;
• In May–December 2015, operations would be conducted in Moyen Chari;
• In September 2015–February 2016, operations would be conducted in Sila; and
• In November 2014–November 2019, operations would be conducted in Tibesti.[27]

The plan notes that Chad adhered to the Convention on Cluster Munitions but does not detail plans to clear cluster munition remnants.[28] According to MAG, the HCND assigns areas for clearance and decides on priorities in consultation with mine action operators.[29]

As of June 2018, the national mine action plan was in the process of being updated.[30]

Standards

HI began a review of Chad’s national mine action standards for land release and quality management at the start of 2016. In September 2017, HI reported that 11 national mine action standards had been updated and issued, following HCND approval.[31]

Quality management

In 2017, Level 1 explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) quality assurance training was carried out with the HCND as part of the PRODECO project.[32]

Information management

The HCND uses the IMSMA database. As part of the PRODECO project, the database was being updated in 2018 by the HCND’s information management team, under the supervision of an FSD expert.[33]

Operators

On 10 May 2017, a media source reported that 755 deminers employed by the CND began a strike over 10 months of wages that had not been paid by the Ministry of Economy and Development Planning.[34]

As part of the PRODECO project, HI is focusing on survey and clearance in the Borkou and Ennedi regions, while MAG is working in the Tibesti and Lake Chad regions.[35]

MAG was planning to deploy demining teams under the new EU PRODECO project in June 2018 but, as of September, had not yet been able to start clearance due to issues with security in Tibesti. MAG started operations in the Lake Chad region and, as of September, had conducted non-technical survey in seven areas.[36]

Deminer safety

According to the report, the deminers had carried out several missions in the north, east, and west of the country to open roads linking Chad to neighboring Libya and Niger and to secure settlement areas, during which a number were killed and others suffered traumatic amputations in mine blasts.[37]

Land Release

No landmine or cluster munition survey or clearance operations were reported in Chad during 2017. Nearly 0.58km² was released by clearance and technical survey the previous year.[38]

In 2016, MAG and HI conducted survey in the Tibesti and Borkou regions, confirming over 16.24km² as contaminated with mines.[39] In December 2016, HI carried out an evaluation of the needs for survey and clearance in Borkou and the west of Ennedi region to prepare for the start of the new four-year EU-funded demining project. It reported identifying more than 40km² of area as mined, 2.7km² as contaminated with ERW, and a total of 147 open suspected or confirmed hazardous areas.[40]

Progress in 2018

The priorities for 2018 were the Borkou, Ennedi, and Tibesti regions in which six manual demining teams, one non-technical survey team, and two mechanical demining teams were to be deployed, as well as a non-technical survey/community liaison team in the Lake Chad region.[41]

Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 Compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the six-year extension granted by States Parties in 2013), Chad is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 January 2020. Chad will not meet this deadline and will require a further extension.

As of June 2018, Chad was in the process of preparing its fourth extension request.[42] Its latest extension request, granted in 2013, noted as circumstances impeding compliance with its Article 5 obligations: a lack of financial support; the size of the country and poor road network; information management problems; mismanagement at the CND; and a lack of transparency in resources management, as well as security issues. As of 2018, however, the full extent of the challenge remains unknown, as further survey still needs to be conducted.

In 2013, Chad was requested by States Parties to report on the result of a mid-term evaluation of its national mine action strategy by the end of 2015, and to revise the strategy on the basis of updated information, if required. As of mid-2018, it had yet to do so.[43]

Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 Compliance

Under Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Chad is required to destroy all cluster munition remnants in areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 September 2023. It is unclear whether Chad is on track to meet this deadline. It has conducted no clearance of cluster munition-contaminated areas in the last five years.

In its Article 7 transparency report for 2016, Chad reported that two submunitions had been found and cleared in the regions of Borkou and Tibesti.[44] In Chad’s Article 7 report for 2017, Form F (which concerns contamination and clearance) was reported as “Not applicable.”[45]

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.