Congo, Democratic Republic of
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2009, but the ratification process still has not been completed. The DRC has participated in several meetings of the convention, most recently in May 2022. It was absent from the vote on the key annual United Nations resolution promoting the convention in December 2021.
The DRC provided a voluntary Article 7 transparency report for the convention in May 2022, which confirmed that it has not produced cluster munitions and possesses no stocks of the weapons, including for research and training purposes. Cluster munitions were used in the DRC in the past, but the actors responsible have never been conclusively identified.
Policy
The DRC signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 18 March 2009.
The current status of the DRC’s ratification of the convention is not known. There has been little progress to complete the process since the Senate adopted ratification legislation on 28 November 2013.[1] In 2015, the DRC indicated that the law was awaiting review by the Constitutional Court.[2]
The DRC reported in May 2022 that it had not adopted implementation legislation for the Convention on Cluster Munitions as it had not yet ratified the convention.[3] The DRC also reported that it had adopted a Strategic Plan for the Fight Against Landmines in January 2022, which also covers its implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The DRC provided a voluntary Article 7 transparency report for the convention on 30 May 2022, covering activities from 2013 to 2022. The DRC submitted three previous voluntary transparency reports, in 2011–2014.[4]
The DRC actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and strongly supported a comprehensive ban, as well as the inclusion of provisions on international cooperation and assistance. Due to inadequate signing authority, the DRC could not sign the convention in Oslo in December 2008, but signed three months later at the UN in New York.[5]
The DRC has participated in formal meetings of the convention, most recently the Ninth Meeting of States Parties, held in Geneva in September 2019.[6] It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021. However, representatives from the DRC participated in intersessional meetings of the convention in May 2022 as well as a regional workshop on the convention in Abuja, Nigeria in March 2022.[7]
In December 2021, the DRC was absent from the vote on a key United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urged states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[8] It voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention in 2015–2016 and 2018–2020, but was absent from the vote in 2017.
The DRC has elaborated its views on several important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. In 2012, the government’s national mine action coordinator said that the DRC agreed with the views of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) that the provisions of the convention forbid transit, foreign stockpiling, and investment in the production of cluster munitions, and also forbid assistance with the use of cluster munitions in joint military operations with states not party.[9]
The DRC is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
In May 2022, the DRC reported that it has not produced cluster munitions and possesses no stocks, including for research and training purposes.[10] This confirms the information provided in previous Article 7 transparency reports, as well as statements made by officials stating that the DRC has never produced cluster munitions and does not possess a stockpile.[11]
The DRC has not commented on evidence suggesting that it may have received a shipment of Chilean-manufactured cluster munitions from Zimbabwe either in or after July 2013.[12]
The DRC states that it has never used cluster munitions, but that “foreign armies” have used cluster munitions in the DRC in the past.[13] The DRC’s cluster munition contamination includes BL-755, BLU-63, BLU-55, ShAOB-0.5, and PM1-type submunitions.[14] Its 2022 Article 7 transparency report uses the stockpile destruction form to report that a total of 3,041 submunitions were cleared and destroyed in the 2013–2022 period as a result of demining activities (2,793 Chilean-made PM1 submunitions and 248 US-made Mk118 Rockeye submunitions).[15]
[1] See, DRC Convention on Cluster Munitions Voluntary Article 7 Report, Form A, June 2014; and statement by Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, Coordinator, Congolese National Center for the Fight Against Mines (Centre Congolais de Lutte Antimines, CCLAM), Convention on Cluster Munitions intersessional meetings, Geneva, 7 April 2014.
[2] Statement by Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, Coordinator, CCLAM, Convention on Cluster Munitions intersessional meetings, Geneva, 22 June 2015.
[3] DRC Convention on Cluster Munitions Voluntary Article 7 Report, Form A, 30 May 2022.
[4] The initial Convention on Cluster Munitions voluntary Article 7 report submitted on 15 May 2011 covers the period from February 2002 to 15 May 2011, while the report provided on 10 April 2012 covers calendar year 2011, and the report provided in June 2014 covers calendar years 2012 and 2013.
[5] For details on the DRC’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 60–61.
[6] The DRC participated in the convention’s meetings of States Parties in 2010–2014, the First Review Conference in 2015, and intersessional meetings in 2011–2015, as well as regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently the Kampala Convention on Cluster Munitions Ratification Seminar on 29–30 May 2017. It did not attend meetings of the convention held in 2016–2018 or 2020.
[7] Convention on Cluster Munitions Implementation Support Unit (ISU), Report on the African Regional Convention on Cluster Munitions Universalization Workshop in Abuja, Nigeria, 23–24 March 2022.
[8] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 76/47, 6 December 2021.
[9] Meeting with Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, National Focal Point of the Struggle Against Mines (Point Focal National pour la Lutte Antimines, PFNLAM), in Brussels, 15 April 2012.
[10] DRC Convention on Cluster Munitions Voluntary Article 7 Report, Form B, 30 May 2022.
[11] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Capt. Roger Bokwango, Deputy Coordinator, PFNLAM, 30 March 2010; and statement by Nzuzi Manzembi, Director, Directorate of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 6 March 2009. Notes by the Congolese Campaign to Ban Landmines (Campagne congolaise pour interdire les mines, CCIM).
[12] In May 2018, HRW reviewed a copy of an official document including “packing list,” addressed to the National Army of the DRC, dated 3 July 2013 and issued on the letterhead of Zimbabwe Defense Industries Ltd. The document lists various weapons including three crates or pallets of cluster bombs, one weighing 350kg and two weighing 150kg each. According to the document, a manual for CB-250K cluster bombs was also provided. It is unclear if complete cluster bombs were provided or components. Chile produced and transferred CB-250K cluster bombs prior to signing the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. As a signatory, under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the DRC has committed not to take any action that runs contrary to the object and purpose of the convention, such as importing or otherwise receiving cluster munitions.
[13] Statement by Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, CCLAM, Convention on Cluster Munitions intersessional meetings, Geneva, 7 April 2014. See also, statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions intersessional meetings, Geneva, 28 June 2011.
[14] In May 2013, the DRC reported for the first time that BLU-55 type submunitions had been found and destroyed in Katanga and South Kivu provinces. It also reported for the first time that ShAOB-type submunitions were destroyed during clearance operations in Lubumbashi in 2012. It reported that in 2012, 55 submunitions of the type PM1 were destroyed in Bolomba, Équateur province, and that a further nine PM1 submunitions were destroyed in Lubutu, Maniema province in 2013. The official stated that BL-755 and BLU-55 submunitions had been destroyed in Kabalo and Manono, Katanga province, and in Shabunda, South Kivu province. Statement of the DRC, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 23 May 2013. Notes by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV). See also, statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, Lao PDR, 11 November 2010. Notes by the CMC; and statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions intersessional meetings, Geneva, 28 June 2011.
[15] DRC Convention on Cluster Munitions Voluntary Article 7 Report, Form B, 30 May 2022.