Congo, Republic of

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 13 September 2021

Summary

State Party Congo ratified the convention on 2 September 2014. It has participated in meetings of the convention, but not since 2015. It voted in favor of a United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2020.

Congo states that it has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions, and does not possess any stocks, including for training or research. It must submit a transparency report for the convention to formally confirm this cluster munition-free status.

Policy

The Republic of the Congo(Congo-Brazzaville) signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 2 September 2014, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 March 2015.

Congo has not enacted implementing legislation for the convention, but in the past officials have expressed interest in doing so.[1]

As of July 2021, Congo has not submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, originally due by 28 August 2015. Timely submission of the report is a legal obligation.[2]

Congo participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention in Dublin in May 2008.[3]

Congo has participated in several meetings of the convention, but none since the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015.[4] It was invited to, but did not attend, the first part of the Second Review Conference held virtually in November 2020.

In December 2020, Congo voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states parties to provide “complete and timely information” to promote transparency and compliance with the convention.[5] Congo has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Congo has expressed concern at the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[6]

In 2013, Congo’s National Mine Action Focal Point elaborated Congo’s views on several important issues concerning interpretation and implementation of the convention. The representative told the Monitor that Congo “is not willing to assist any country with prohibited acts” under the convention, nor “to use its national territory for transit of these weapons or the stockpiling of cluster munitions and landmines belonging to a foreign army.”[7] The Congo also agrees with the view that the convention prohibits investment in the production of cluster munitions.[8]

Congo is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Congo stated in 2011 that it has never used, produced, or exported cluster munitions.[9] Congo also stated that it has no stockpiles of cluster munitions on its territory, including for training or research purposes.[10]

Congo must provide a transparency report for the convention to formally confirm it does not possess stocks.

Previously, in 2010, a Ministry of Defense official said Congo once possessed Soviet-made cluster munitions supplied for use with MiG-21 aircraft.[11] In 2011, Congo stated that the destruction of an arms depot in Maya-Maya during the conflict in 1997–1998 dispersed explosive weapons over a wide area, including RBK-250 and RBK-500 cluster bombs.[12] Subsequent clearance of the site destroyed ordnance including PTAB-2.5M and AO-1SCh submunitions.[13] Cluster munitions were not among unexploded ordnance created by a series of explosions at a munitions storage depot in Brazzaville on 4 March 2012 that killed more than 200 people.[14]



[1] In September 2015, Congo informed States Parties that it is reviewing the national implementation measures required to enforce the convention’s provisions. Statement of Congo, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Review Conference, Dubrovnik, 8 September 2015.

[2] The transparency report should be emailed to the UN Secretary-General via the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs at ccm@un.org. More information here.

[3] For details on Congo’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 61–62.

[4] Congo participated in the convention’s meetings of States Parties in 2010–2014, the First Review Conference in 2015, and intersessional meetings in 2011 and 2014.

[5]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 75/62, 7 December 2020.

[6] Statement of Congo, UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 14 October 2013.

[7] Interview with Col. Nkoua, National Focal Point of the Struggle Against Mines, 13 May 2013.

[8] Telephone interview with Col. Nkoua, National Focal Point of the Struggle Against Mines, 8 June 2013.

[9] Statement of Congo, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 15 September 2011.

[10] In September 2011, Congo stated that it had no stockpiles of cluster munitions on its territory. In May 2013, Congo reported that it had destroyed its remaining 372 antipersonnel mines held for training and research purposes following the massive explosions in a weapons depot in Brazzaville in March 2012 and was now a country fully free of landmines and cluster munitions. Statement of Congo, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 15 September 2011; statement by Col. Nkoua, National Focal Point of the Struggle Against Mines, Seminar to mark the 20th Anniversary of the ICBL hosted by the Congolese Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs, Kinshasa, 19 December 2012; and statement of Congo, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 22 May 2013. Notes by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).

[11] Email from Lt.-Col. André Pamphile Serge Oyobe, Head of Information Division, Ministry of Defense, 13 July 2010.

[12] Statement of Congo, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 15 September 2011.

[13] Ibid. Cluster munitions were also apparently part of weapons stockpiles destroyed in 2008–2010 with the assistance of United Kingdom-based humanitarian demining organization Mines Advisory Group (MAG). Email from Lt.-Col. Oyobe, Ministry of Defense, 13 July 2010.

[14] An assessment found that cluster munitions were not found among the unexploded ordinance or other stockpiled munitions in the depot. Simon Conway, “Mpila Munitions Depot Explosion, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, Field Assessment 26 March 2012–1 April 2012”; and AOAV and MAG, “Brazzaville Response Situation Report 2,” 16 March 2012.