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Treaty Status | Management & Coordination | Impact (contamination & casualties) | Addressing the Impact (land release, risk education, victim assistance)

Country summary

Somaliland—a self-proclaimed, though unrecognized, state that operates autonomously in the northwest of Somalia—has been the site of various armed conflicts and violence throughout the past 30 years. As a result, Somaliland is contaminated with mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) exists. There is no known contamination by cluster munitions. (See also separate impact profile for Somalia).

A report published by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2000 stated that although the number of landmines deployed in Somaliland is often quoted to be between one and two million, the number may be lower, between 50,000 and 100,000.[1] The most heavily mined areas are located along the border with Ethiopia; while inland, mines were laid in nuisance or random formations.

The succession of past conflicts left Somaliland contaminated by hundreds of thousands of items of ERW, including grenades, fuse units, artillery shells, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.[2] ERW cause more casualties than landmines each year, with children accounting for the majority of casualties.[3]

At the end of 2019, the HALO Trust was the only clearance operator working in Somaliland and was conducting risk education alongside its clearance operations.[4]

There is no landmine/ERW survivor-specific organization that delivers physical assistance and rehabilitation to survivors in Somaliland. However, a number of disability organizations working in the region provide rehabilitation and treatment services. Notably, the Diversity Action Network (DAN) provides survivors with orthosis, prosthesis, and wheelchairs alongside other rehabilitative and disability-focused services.[5]

Treaty status

Somaliland is unable to accede formally to international instruments such as the Mine Ban Treaty, the Convention on Cluster Munitions, or the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) due to its political status.

Management and coordination

Mine action management and coordination

Mine action management and coordination overview

* Formerly Somaliland Mine Action Centre (SMAC).

Somaliland’s most recent strategic mine action plan expired in 2014.

UNMAS’s Explosive Hazard Management Strategic Framework for Somalia for 2015–2019 includes Somaliland.[6]

In May 2018, the HALO Trust reported that it was working with SMAC (former name of MCICA) and other stakeholders to develop a strategy aimed to be finalized and implemented by 2019. However, the strategy was not in place as of August 2019.[7]

Information management

MCICA manages the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database.[8]

Risk education management and coordination

Risk education management and coordination overview

Coordination

There is no risk education coordination mechanism operating exclusively within Somaliland.

At the regional level, a mine action operator consortium has been developed under Department for International Development (DFID)’s Mine Action Policy which brings together HALO Trust teams from Somalia and Somaliland along with Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) teams from Puntland. This coordination mechanism ensures that there is no duplication of risk education activities.[9]

The HALO Trust reported a significant lack of capacity in Somaliland to develop risk education activities. The national mine clearance department had two risk education teams which were underequipped and underfunded. The HALO Trust was undertaking capacity development with these teams.[10]

National Standards and guidelines

There are no national standards or guidelines on risk education in Somaliland.

The HALO Trust has been conducting risk education in accordance with International Mine Action Standards 12.10 and best practices disseminated by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) and the Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) Advisory Group.[11]

Victim assistance management and coordination

Victim assistance management and coordination overview[12]

Laws and policies

There are no survivor-specific programs or services in Somaliland. However, survivors are provided with rehabilitation and treatment under a broader network of disability services provided by both the government and non-governmental actors.

Local organizations advocated for the rights of persons with disabilities with negligible support from local authorities.[13]

The 2012 National Policy on Disability explicitly recognizes landmines and ERW as a cause of disability before acknowledging that sufficient disability prevention policies do not exist.[14]

Whilst there is no existing mechanism for survivor inclusion and participation, the 2018–2021 Policy Implementation Action Plan for the National Disability Policy recommends the involvement of persons with disabilities and disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs) in the needs assessment, design, implementation, coordination, monitoring, and evaluation of humanitarian preparedness and response programs. It also recommends the inclusion of persons with disabilities in data collection.[15]

Impact

Contamination

Contamination overview (as of December 2019)[16]

Landmine contamination

Most of the remaining minefields in Somaliland are mixed antipersonnel and antivehicle minefields, the majority of which are barrier minefields or military base perimeter minefields.[17] As of December 2019, 6.71km² of confirmed hazardous area (CHA) remained, comprising 19 minefield tasks across 10 districts.[18]

Antipersonnel mines continue to present a threat to life among the primarily pastoralist populations, which rely heavily on agriculture and land for livestock grazing. These groups are constantly moving across Somaliland, putting herders and animals at higher risk from the threat of mines and ERW.[19]

Casualties

Casualties overview[20]

Note: ERW=explosive remnant of war.

Casualties in 2019: details

In 2019 there were a total of 15 casualties, 13 of which were injured and two killed. All were children aged between five to 17 years old. The majority were boys. The causes of the ERW accidents are all a result of children encountering and engaging with ordnance while playing or herding animals. Four of the five ERW incidents caused multiple casualties.[21]

There were two incidents involving antipersonnel landmines in 2019. The first one involved a nine-year old girl who found an antipersonnel landmine in a river while herding livestock and picked up the mine, resulting in its detonation. The second incident involved two boys, aged 14 and 17, who were injured by an antipersonnel mine in Maroodi Jeex region.

Between 2000 and the end of 2019, the Monitor identified 1,045 mine/ERW casualties, of which 255 people were killed, 764 were injured, and the survival status was unknown for the remaining 26 casualties.

Addressing the impact

Mine action

Operators and service providers

Clearance operators[22]

NPA was also working in Somaliland but finished its work in 2019.

Clearance

Land release overview[23]

Note: ERW=explosive remnants of war.

Land release: landmines

The HALO Trust was the sole clearance operator working in Somaliland during 2019. They cleared and released 1.44km²of land by the end of the year. Clearance figures are not disaggregated for landmines and ERW, as the HALO Trust is no longer conducting battle area clearance (BAC). [24]

The HALO Trust has emphasized the need for developing sufficient residual capacity in Somaliland for clearance and ERW disposal, in particular due to the nature of past mine-laying and the likelihood that unknown contaminated areas will be continued to be found after the clearance of all recorded CHAs.[25]

Risk education

Operators and service providers

Risk education operators[26]

Beneficiary numbers

Beneficiaries of risk education in 2019[27]

Implementation

Target group[28]

Children, both boys and girls, are considered a high-risk group due to their tendency to pick up items. However, boys are considered to be the most at risk due to their curiosity and their traditional gender roles, including livestock herding in rural areas.

Men are at a relatively high risk of encountering ERW as they are likely to spend long periods of time outside engaging in activities such as tending to livestock or crops.

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are at a high risk of exposure to ERW due to their unfamiliarity with areas where they settle. Nomadic pastoralist groups represent 35% of Somaliland’s population and are at risk as they transit the countryside in search of grazing for their livestock.

Delivery methods

The HALO Trust delivers risk education through community sessions with flipcharts, and in schools. In 2019, risk education session were delivered in both rural and urban settings and in IDPs camps. The risk education messages focus on antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines, and other ERW.

Due to the high level of illiteracy in Somaliland, risk education sessions are delivered in person and pictorial leaflets are disseminated.

Victim assistance

Victim assistance providers and activities

Victim assistance operators[29]

* Previously Disability Action Network.

** Operates under its former name, Handicap International, in Somaliland.

Note: DPOs=disabled persons’ organizations.

Needs assessment

The Somaliland Disability Department has established a unit for data collection on persons with disabilities in Somaliland and the data was used to inform government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multilateral organizations programming, and to ensure that the needs of the disabled population were met.[30]

Medical care and rehabilitation

Two organizations provide physical rehabilitation for disabled persons, including mine/ERW survivors. The ICRC MoveAbility Foundation supported the Somali Red Crescent Society rehabilitation center in Hargeisa, while the Diversity Action Network (DAN) also makes and provides orthoses, prosthesis, and wheelchairs. It delivers rehabilitative services across Somaliland from its headquarters in Hargeisa.[31] However, for those who cannot obtain a prosthetic appliance from DAN or the Somali Red Crescent Society Hargeisa, the costs of prosthetic devices in Somaliland are prohibitive.[32]

Socio-economic and psychosocial inclusion

Humanity & Inclusion (HI) provides technical support and funding to DPOs.[33]