Policy

The Federal Republic of Nigeria acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 27 September 2001, and the treaty entered into force for the country on 1 March 2002.

Nigeria has not drafted national implementation legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty. In 2004, and subsequently, Nigeria has stated it was in the process of enacting national legislation to implement the treaty.[1] In September 2013, the Monitor was informed that a committee on international humanitarian law was considering the status of international instruments that Nigeria is party to or has yet to join. While consultations were ongoing, the implementing legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty had not yet been sent by the committee to parliament.[2] In 2006, Nigeria reported that an implementation bill was undergoing its first reading in the National Assembly.[3]

Nigeria has not submitted an updated annual Article 7 transparency report since 2012. Nigeria was encouraged to submit an Article 7 report by the Eighteenth Meeting of States Parties, held virtually in November 2020, ahead of deliberations on Nigeria’s Article 5 deadline extension request.[4]

Nigeria attended the Eighteenth Meeting of States Parties, as well as intersessional meetings held virtually in June 2021. Nigeria attended the Fourth Review Conference in Oslo in November 2019, where it provided an update on new mine use by a non-state armed group (NSAG). Nigeria’s Article 5 deadline was extended due to new contamination by improvised antipersonnel landmines.

It is unclear if Nigeria has additional Article 5 obligations related to residual contamination from the Biafran Civil War. In 2004, Nigeria did not report any contamination in its initial Article 7 report. Subsequent Article 7 reports suggest mines from the Biafran Civil War were periodically cleared. In October 2017, the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice awarded NGN88 billion (US$242.4 million) in damages against the federal government for its failure to clear landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW), remaining from the civil war in the southeast of the country. The court ordered the federal government to commence clearance within 45 days. Mine victims had launched the legal case with the ECOWAS Court in 2012, requesting the court to order the Nigerian government to act on explosive hazards remaining in 11 states.[5] In May 2019, Nigeria stated at the intersessional meetings that “as soon as security conditions permit, non-technical survey of antipersonnel mines, anti-vehicle mines, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) will commence in Nigeria’s three most conflict affected states, Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa and this will enable us to provide necessary information on the discovery of any contamination from antipersonnel mines, including victim-activated IEDs.”[6]

Nigeria has signed, but not ratified, both the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use

Boko Haram militants have used landmines, improvised antipersonnel mines, and other types of IEDs in attacks, primarily in the northeast of Nigeria.

In June 2021, Nigeria stated that with regards to new contamination, the “majority of incidents reported are due to improvised anti‐personnel mines (Victim‐Activated IED‐ pressure plate activated).”[7] At the Fourth Review Conference in November 2019, Nigeria stated that NSAGs had been producing and using antipersonnel mines of an improvised nature in the northeast. Nigeria stated that due to insecurity, it had been unable to conduct a comprehensive survey to determine the extent of the contamination in the most affected states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa.[8]

In December 2020, Mines Advisory Group (MAG) documented incidents and recoveries of improvised landmines attributed to Boko Haram over previous years. MAG recorded 697 incidents which produced 1,052 casualties from improvised landmines or ERW between January 2016 and August 2020 throughout Borno state, and in some areas of Yobe and Adamawa states.[9] Previously, in September 2018, MAG stated that there was evidence of significant new use of mines by Boko Haram and its splinter groups. MAG reported that locally-manufactured antipersonnel mines were used on roads, fields, and within villages, mostly in Borno state, but also in Yobe and Adamawa.[10]

In April 2017, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) reported “extensive use of simple pressure plate activated IEDs on main supply routes, effectively as very large de facto landmines. There are reports of significant use of IEDs around Boko Haram held areas, with the use of multiple IEDs and anti-handling devices.”[11] In June 2017, UNMAS said contamination by improvised mines laid by Boko Haram factions also threatened communities in nearby areas of the Lake Chad Basin.[12] In May 2020, the Nigeria Security Index reported that 99% of the attacks by Boko Haram over a 10-year period used landmines and other explosive devices, but did not differentiate by type.[13]

Previously, in August 2015, Nigerian Army spokesperson Colonel Sani Usman was reported to have stated that the army had cleared landmines planted by Boko Haram militants on the Gwoza-Yamteke road, in Borno state. He said the militants converted chemistry laboratories at the Dikwa School of Agriculture into bomb-making factories when they seized the town.[14] The Nigerian Army released a series of photographs showing its engineers removing items planted along the Gwoza-Yamteke highway.[15] In August 2016, a Nigerian media outlet reported that the army was involved in clearing Boko Haram landmines.[16] That month, the Nigerian Army reportedly arrested five Boko Haram militants who were alleged to be laying landmines.[17]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

In 2009 and 2010, Nigeria reported the past production of what it described as “conventional [antipersonnel] landmines” that were victim-activated, and attached a photograph of what it said was a “Biafran fabricated landmine (OGBUNIGWE) used during the Nigerian Civil War 1967–70.”[18] Nigeria has stated that it has not acquired or used antipersonnel mines since the 1967–1970 conflict, and denied allegations that its ECOWAS troops used mines in the 1990s in Liberia and Sierra Leone.[19]

In February 2001, the Chief of Operations of the Nigerian Army reported to the Monitor that Nigeria had destroyed its antipersonnel mines remaining after the Biafran Civil War, and had not retained any for training or development purposes.[20] In May 2002, however, Nigeria presented photographs to the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, showing that antipersonnel mines were among munitions involved in a January 2002 fire and explosion at the Ammunition Transit Depot in Ikeja cantonment, Lagos.[21]

In its initial Article 7 transparency report, submitted in 2004, Nigeria declared a stockpile of 3,364 Dimbat mines for research and training.[22] In 2005, Nigeria reported that all of its retained mines had been destroyed.[23] Nigeria stated in 2007, “With the completion of these destruction exercises, we are able to report that there are no more anti-personnel mines on Nigeria soil.”[24] However, in 2009, Nigeria reported 3,364 “British made AP mines” as retained for training and also stated that it had destroyed 9,786 stockpiled “British made AP landmines” in 2005.[25] In 2010, and again in 2012, Nigeria continued to list retaining 3,364 “British and Czechoslovakian made AP Landmine[s]” but did not specify the types.[26]

NSAG production

In June 2018, the Nigerian Army offered a reward of NGN5 million (US$13,800), via public radio in the northeast of the country, for any information regarding the location of IED factories.[27]

In 2016, a technical expert working for the Norwegian Refugee Council provided the Monitor with photographs and technical characteristics of Boko Haram-made, victim-activated improvised landmines, triggered by a pressure plate. The expert alleged that the technology was transferred to Boko Haram from Al-Shabaab in Somalia.[28]