Cameroon
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: State Party Cameroon ratified the convention on 12 July 2012 and adopted national implementing legislation in December 2016. Cameroon has attended meetings of the convention, most recently in September 2017. Cameroon voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2018.
Cameroon provided an initial transparency report for the convention in August 2014, confirming that it has not used or produced cluster munitions. It has retained a stockpile of six cluster munitions and 906 submunitions for training purposes.
Policy
The Republic of Cameroon signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 15 December 2009, ratified on 12 July 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 January 2013.
Cameroon’s National Assembly adopted legislation on 14 December 2016 providing penal and fiscal sanctions for violations of the prohibitions of the convention. [1] Cameroon has also reported its Penal Code and other decrees and existing laws under national implementation measures applicable to the convention. [2] Cameroon said in September 2017 that it intends to establish a “national committee on weapons” to oversee implementation of the new law. [3]
Cameroon provided an initial Article 7 transparency report in August 2014, and submitted updated reports in 2015, 2016, and most recently in April 2017. [4] The 2016 national legislation mandates the Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs to provide annual Article 7 transparency reports by April 1 of each year, detailing the type, quantity, and lot number of cluster munitions in Cameroon’s possession. [5]
Cameroon participated in the Oslo Process and joined in the consensus adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin in May 2008, but could not sign the convention in Oslo in December 2008 due to challenges in securing authorization. [6] It signed the convention at the UN in New York in December 2009 and ratified on 12 July 2012, after adopting ratification legislation in March 2011. [7]
Cameroon has participated in every meeting of the convention except the Eighth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2018. [8]
In December 2018, Cameroon voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging implementation and universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. [9] Cameroon has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.
Cameroon has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2018. [10]
Cameroon is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Interpretive issues
Cameroon has elaborated its views on certain important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. In 2011, the Ministry for External Relations stated, “Cameroon has never produced, used, or stockpiled, let alone served as a platform for the transit or transfer of cluster munitions. It therefore approves a) the prohibition on the transfer of cluster munitions; b) the prohibition on the assistance in joint military operations; c) the prohibition on foreign stockpile of cluster munitions; d) the prohibition on investments in cluster munitions.” [11] Cameroon’s 2016 implementation legislation states that the president must approve any transit of cluster munitions on its territory. [12] It authorizes the transfer of cluster munitions for the sole purpose of destruction. [13]
Use, production, and transfer
Cameroon has stated on several occasions that it has not used or produced cluster munitions. [14] It imported or otherwise acquired a stockpile of cluster munitions produced in France in 1983, according to the lot numbers. [15]
Stockpiling and stockpile destruction
In August 2014, Cameroon reported a stockpile of six BLG-66 Belouga cluster bombs and 906 “grenades” or explosive submunitions. [16]
Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Cameroon must destroy all its stockpiled cluster munitions as soon as possible, but not later than 1 January 2021.
Cameroon never indicated that it planned to destroy the stockpile, but instead has stated via the initial transparency report and subsequent annual updates that it was retaining the stockpile for research and training purposes. [17]
Cameroon has retained six BLG-66 Belouga cluster bombs and 906 “grenades” or explosive submunitions for research and training purposes. That number has not changed since 2014, indicating that Cameroon has yet to consume or otherwise destroy the munitions in research or training exercises.
Cameroon’s 2016 implementing legislation permits the retention of a “limited” number of cluster munitions and submunitions for training related to the detection and destruction of cluster munitions. [18] The law does not elaborate what it means by “limited.”
[1] The law contains fines for violations, ranging from $1 to $170 (1,000 to 100,000 CFA) as well as penal sanction of various terms, e.g. 15–25 years for production, storage, importation, and transportation, and 10–30 years for sales. “Loi portant régime général des armes et munitions au Cameroun” (“Law on the general regime of weapons and ammunition in Cameroon”), Republic of Cameroon, Law No.2016/015, Chapter IV, 14 December 2016.
[2] See, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Reports, Form A, August 2014 and April 2017.
[3] Statement of Cameroon, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of State Parties, Geneva, 5 September 2017. Official audio recording, UN Digital Recordings Portal.
[4] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form A, April 2017. Cameroon’s transparency reporting has been inconsistent and fraught with delays. An internet archiving service shows that Cameroon’s initial report from 2014 was not uploaded to the UN database of Convention on Cluster Munitions transparency reports until August 2016. Reports covering the years 2015 and 2016 were both uploaded in April 2017.
[5] “Loi portant régime général des armes et munitions au Cameroun” (“Law on the general regime of weapons and ammunition in Cameroon”), Republic of Cameroon, Law No.2016/015, Chapter IV, Article 36, 14 December 2016.
[6] For details on Cameroon’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2010, see ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2010), pp. 126–127.
[7] Law 2011/003 was adopted on 6 March 2011 and signed into law by President Paul Biya on 6 May 2011
[8] Cameroon attended the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015, intersessional meetings in 2013–2014, and regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in August 2016.
[9] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 73/54, 5 December 2018.
[10] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 73/182, 17 December 2018. Cameroon voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2017.
[11] Original text in French: “Le Cameroun, n’est producteur, ni utilisation, ni stockeur encore moins une plate-forme de transit et de transfert des armes à sous-munitions. Il approuve par conséquent a) l’interdiction de transfert des sous-munitions; b) l’interdiction d’assistance en opérations militaires conjointes; c) l’interdiction de stocker des armes à sous-munitions étrangères; d) l’interdiction d’investir dans les armes à sous-munitions.” “Cameroon and the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” statement provided to Handicap International in email from Dr. Yves Alexandre Chouala, Ministry of External Relations, 12 May 2011.
[12] “Loi portant régime général des armes et munitions au Cameroun” (“Law on the general regime of weapons and ammunition in Cameroon”), Republic of Cameroon, Law No.2016/015, Chapter II, Article 6, 14 December 2016.
[13] Ibid., Chapter IV, Article 35.
[14] Statement of Cameroon, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 15 September 2011; statement of Cameroon, Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, Closing Plenary, 30 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action; and statement of Cameroon, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 10 November 2010. Notes by the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).
[15] Each bomb contains 152 submunitions; Cameroon reported a total of 906 submunitions rather than 912 submunitions.
[16] Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form B, August 2014.
[17] Ibid., Form C. See also, statement of Cameroon, Convention on Cluster Munitions Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 4 September 2017. Official audio recording, UN Digital Recordings Portal.
[18] “Loi portant régime général des armes et munitions au Cameroun” (“Law on the general regime of weapons and ammunition in Cameroon”), Republic of Cameroon, Law No.2016/015, Chapter IV, Article 35, 14 December 2016.