Congo, Democratic Republic of
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in March 2009, and announced in August 2022 that it had restarted its parliamentary process necessary to approve ratification. The DRC has participated in several meetings of the convention, most recently the Tenth Meeting of States Parties held in Geneva in August–September 2022. It voted in favor of the key annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting the convention in December 2022.
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 cluster munitions, including for research and training purposes. Cluster munitions were used in the DRC in the past, but the actors responsible for this use have never been conclusively identified.
Policy
The DRC signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 18 March 2009.
In August 2022, the DRC told the Tenth Meeting of States Parties that its lengthy delay in ratifying the convention “is more a procedural technical matter than one of political will.”[1] It outlined the “political and administrative problems that…prevented the finalization of the ratification” after the Senate adopted ratification legislation on 28 November 2013.[2] According to the official, the DRC has “decided to go through the procedure again in order to have the bill once again submitted to the two chambers of our parliament so that it can once again be adopted and then go to the enactment stage.”
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 last provided a voluntary Article 7 transparency report for the convention on 30 May 2022, covering activities in 2013–2022. The DRC submitted three previous voluntary Article 7 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 United Nations (UN) in New York.[5]
The DRC has participated in most of the convention’s meetings, most recently the Tenth Meeting of States Parties held in Geneva in August–September 2022.[6] Representatives from the DRC participated in intersessional meetings of the convention in May 2022 as well as a regional workshop on the convention held in Abuja, Nigeria in March 2022.
In December 2022, the DRC voted in favor of a key UNGA resolution that urged states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[7] The DRC 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 and 2021.
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 convention’s provisions forbid transit, foreign stockpiling, and investment in the production of cluster munitions, and also forbid assistance with use of cluster munitions in joint military operations with states not party.[8]
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.[9] This confirms the information provided in previous Article 7 transparency reports, as well as in statements made by officials that the DRC has never produced cluster munitions and does not possess a stockpile.[10]
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.[11]
The DRC states that it has never used cluster munitions, but that “foreign armies” have used cluster munitions in the DRC in the past.[12] The DRC’s cluster munition contamination includes BL-755, BLU-63, BLU-55, ShAOB-0.5, and PM1-type submunitions.[13] Its 2022 Article 7 transparency report used the stockpile destruction form to report that a total of 3,041 submunitions were cleared and destroyed during the 2013–2022 period, as a result of demining activities. The destroyed submunitions consisted of 2,793 Chilean-made PM1 submunitions and 248 United States (US)-made Mk118 Rockeye submunitions.[14]
[1]Statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions Tenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 30 August 2022.
[2] DRC Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report (voluntary), Form A, June 2014. See, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Database. After the law’s adoption, the DRC said the law was sent to the president for enactment but “at that stage a number of procedural difficulties arose.” According to the update, officials “have not yet managed to get the document in question back from the former Supreme Court that was supposed to be checking its compliance with our Constitution” and have not been able to find it in the court’s archives. See, statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions Tenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 30 August 2022.
[3] DRC Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report (voluntary), Form A, 30 May 2022.
[4] The DRC’s initial Convention on Cluster Munitions voluntary Article 7 report, submitted on 15 May 2011, covers the period from February 2002 up to 15 May 2011. The report provided on 10 April 2012 covers calendar year 2011, while 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 held in 2011–2015, as well as regional workshops on cluster munitions. It did not attend meetings of the convention held in 2016–2018 or 2020.
[7] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 77/79, 7 December 2022.
[8] Meeting with Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, National Focal Point for the Struggle Against Mines (Point Focal National pour la Lutte Antimines, PFNLAM), in Brussels, 15 April 2012.
[9] DRC Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report (voluntary), Form B, 30 May 2022.
[10] See, for example, statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions Tenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 31 August 2022.
[11] 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 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.
[12] Statement by Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, National Coordinator, Congolese Mine Action Coordination Center (Centre Congolais de Lutte Antimines, CCLAM), Convention on Cluster Munitions intersessional meetings, Geneva, 7 April 2014; statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions intersessional meetings, Geneva, 28 June 2011; and statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions Tenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 31 August 2022.
[13] 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, while 55 PM1 submunitions were destroyed in Bolomba, Équateur province. In 2013, a further nine PM1 submunitions were destroyed in Lubutu, Maniema province. 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, 23 May 2013. Notes by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV); statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 11 November 2010. Notes by the CMC; and statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions intersessional meetings, Geneva, 28 June 2011.
[14] DRC Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report (voluntary), Form B, 30 May 2022.