Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Chad signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

As of 25 June 2012, Chad had completed all the necessary domestic steps to ratify the convention and all that remained was for the instrument of ratification to be deposited with the UN in New York.

On 16 April 2012, Chad announced that its parliament has approved ratification and its president has signed the ratification instrument, so the government is in the “final process” of depositing its instrument of ratification with the UN in New York.[1] Throughout 2010 and 2011, Chad provided regular updates on the status of its ratification.[2]

In April 2012, a government official informed the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) that there are currently no plans to enact new national legislation to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[3]

Chad actively engaged in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and supported a comprehensive ban on cluster munitions.[4] It continued to engage in the work of the convention in 2011 and the first half of 2012. Chad attended the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, where it provided an update on ratification.[5] At the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2012, Chad made statements on universalization, victim assistance, and clearance.

Chad is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Chad is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Chad is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.

French aircraft dropped cluster munitions on a Libyan airfield inside Chad at Wadi Doum during the 1986–1987 conflict. Libyan forces used AO-1SCh and PTAB-2.5 submunitions.

In April 2012, a Chadian official informed the Monitor that there have been no transfers of cluster munitions from Libya to Chad, in response to questions about Libyan arms stockpiles that were left unsecured during the 2011 Libya conflict.[6]

Contamination and Impact

Chad is contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) resulting from the 1973 Libyan invasion and 30 years of internal conflict, which continues to this day, but the precise extent of this contamination still remains to be quantified.

Earlier estimates of 670km² or more of suspect hazardous areas (SHAs) outside the northern Tibesti region, identified as a result of a 1999–2001 Landmine Impact Survey[1] and subsequent survey and clearance, are widely believed to overstate the true extent of the problem today. A new survey of SHAs, which after prolonged delays began in September 2010, was expected to clarify the situation across much of the country.[2] Nine administrative regions of Chad are considered as mine/ERW contaminated.[3]

By May 2011, under contract to UNDP, the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) had carried out the survey of seven of nine contaminated regions.[4] Previously unknown hazardous areas are said to have been identified north of Faya Largeau.[5] As of May 2011, MAG teams had located 28 mined areas and 37 areas contaminated by unexploded ordnance (UXO); 49km² of contaminated areas have been marked.[6] Phase 1 of the survey ended at the beginning of June 2011 and, following further bureaucratic delays, Phase 2 only began in May 2012.[7]

Mines

MAG identified or confirmed 28 mined areas during the first phase of the survey, the operational phase of which ended in June 2011.[8] The estimated area of contamination had not been made public. The analysis and consolidation of the data were planned to be finalized by mid-July.[9] It was still necessary to survey two regions located in the east of the country (and other specific SHAs)—Ouaddaï and Wadi Fira—although contamination was not expected to be very heavy.[10]

Cluster munition remnants

Contamination includes cluster munition remnants. MAG has found unexploded Soviet antitank PETAB-1.5 submunitions during survey in an area close to Faya Largeau.[11] Further surveys in the Gouro area (the far northeast of Borkou region) are likely also to reveal areas contaminated by cluster munitions.[12] In the east of Chad, however, no submunitions were cleared by MineTech, the demining contractor for the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT).[13]

Following the end of the conflict with Libya in 1987, unexploded submunitions and cluster munition containers were found in the three northern provinces, in the Biltine department in Wadi Fira region (northeastern Chad), and east of the capital, N’Djamena.[14] On 3 December 2008 at the signing conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the representative of Chad spoke of “vast swathes of territory” contaminated with “mines and UXO (munitions and submunitions).”[15]

Other explosive remnants of war

The extent of other ERW contamination is similarly not known, although recent conflict, particularly in the east, has added to the existing problem. In 2008, the UN secretary-general referred to “vast quantities of unexploded ordnance and other explosive remnants of war” across eastern Chad.[16] In July 2009, the secretary-general stated that air attacks by the Chadian armed forces against non-state armed groups had resulted in a new UXO threat which subsequently “claimed the lives of at least six children in the Dar Sila region and resulted in school closures and restricted access to farmland.”[17]

In November 2007, the then-coordinator of the National Demining Center (Centre National de Déminage, CND) had claimed that ERW posed a greater humanitarian threat than mines but promised to “expand our minefield survey and clearance capacity, without abandoning our commitment to addressing the ERW contamination that is killing and injuring Chadians now.”[18] In July 2010, MINURCAT stated, “The general consensus of all stakeholders is that the ERW threat presently poses a greater risk to affected populations than mines and extent of ERW contamination is largely unknown, although anecdotal evidence suggests that there are significant levels of ERW presence resulting from failure of both indirect and direct fire munitions. The fluid nature of the ongoing conflict has left significant amounts of abandoned ammunition and UXO within the MINURCAT AOR [area of responsibility].”[19] In addition, the Salamat region and the Central African Republic were believed to have a “high level of ERW contamination” but due to security constraints were not subject to any clearance or road verification activity from MINURCAT’s teams.[20]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

The Steering Committee of the Haut Commissariat National de Déminage (High Commission for National Demining, HCND), which is chaired by the secretary-general of the Ministry of Economy and Cooperation, is responsible for mine action regulation, policy, and resource mobilization.

All mine action operations are coordinated by the CND, whose work is overseen by the Steering Committee. Four CND regional centers coordinate activities within their respective zones in Abéché, Bardaï, Fada, and Faya. A “sub-center” was subsequently created by the CND in Am Timan. In early 2010, the President of Chad passed a Presidential Decree appointing a Special Regional Delegate to the CND’s Tibesti office, located in what is believed to be Chad’s most mine-affected area.[21] A new CND coordinator was also appointed.[22]

After prolonged delays ascribed to internal UN bureaucracy,[23] a contract to conduct a large-scale survey of contamination was signed with MAG in May 2010. Due to these delays, MAG had left Chad in January 2010, but it returned in the summer to conduct the survey and further demining.[24] By the end of the one-year contract, two regions remained to be surveyed. It was not known when these areas would be surveyed, nor were there any concrete plans to conduct the survey of Tibesti.[25] In May 2012, Chad pledged to present a new strategic mine action plan to the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties.[26]

The MINURCAT Mine Action Unit has been responsible for coordinating all mine action capacities within its area of operations. The Mine Action Unit is based at the MINURCAT headquarters in Abéché, with MineTech as the sole MINURCAT Mine Action Unit contractor.[27] In 2010, in preparation for the withdrawal of MINURCAT, the number of mine action survey and clearance teams was reduced from four to three (located in Abéché, Farchana, and Goz Beida). The UN secretary-general reported to the UN Security Council that outstanding tasks—surveying more than 3,000km of road, clearing 32 battle areas, and completing more than 150 general mine action assessments—could not be completed before the end of 2010. Those activities were being handed over to the CND.[28]

Recent program evaluations

There has been no recent evaluation of the mine action program.[29]

Land Release

Release of mined areas has been significantly reduced in recent years in Chad, with battle area clearance continuing intermittently. MAG ceased clearance operations in 2009 but deployed again for survey and clearance in June 2010.[30] Mine clearance in Faya region, supported by UNMAS and which started in 2011, ended in May 2012 for lack of funding. Clearance in Tibesti was, though, initiated for the first time at the end of April 2012.[31] Chad has not submitted an Article 7 report since 2010.

Survey in 2011

As noted above, a planned 2009 survey of SHAs did not start on schedule; it began in September 2010, under an UNDP project funded by Japan, and ended on 31 May 2011. The second phase of the survey, which would cover the most affected region of Tibesti, started in May 2012.[32]

Mine clearance in 2011

In May 2012, Chad reported that during the course of Phase 1 of the national survey a total of 1,298 antipersonnel mines and 1,268 antivehicle mines were destroyed from clearance of more than 1km² of mined areas.[33]

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the extension requests granted in 2008 and 2010), Chad is formally required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 January 2014. It is understood, however, that Chad will request additional time to fulfill its Article 5 obligations.

Chad’s 2008 extension request was for an initial 14-month period to enable a new survey of contamination to take place—not including the Tibesti region. As the Analysing Group’s review of that extension request stated, “Chad is unable to provide an accounting of the areas now considered to be no longer dangerous relative to those areas originally suspected of being dangerous.”[34]

At the Ninth Meeting of States Parties, which approved the first request, the ICBL welcomed Chad’s approach to requesting a short amount of time to conduct the necessary surveys to clearly determine the remaining contaminated area. The ICBL cautioned, however, that the Tibesti region will need to be cleared before Chad can declare completion of Article 5 obligations, and the lack of a plan to survey the area would make it hard for Chad to draft a final country-wide clearance plan.

At the June 2010 intersessional Standing Committee meetings, Chad announced that it would be submitting a second, short extension request to enable the survey to be conducted.[35] The ICBL stated its deep disappointment that the UN’s internal processes in managing the funds had prevented the survey from being conducted during the existing extension request, as had been planned.[36] A second extension request was submitted on 20 September 2010, seeking an additional three years to conduct the survey. In granting the request, the Tenth Meeting of States Parties noted that, “as Chad had not complied with the commitment it had made, as recorded by the Ninth Meeting of the States Parties, to garner an understanding of the true remaining extent of the challenge and to develop plans accordingly that precisely project the amount of time that will be required to complete Article 5 implementation, it would appear that Chad does not possess much more knowledge now than it did in 2008 to develop a plan to meet its Article 5 obligations.”[37]

Although survey activities had progressed through June 2011, no concrete plans have been made to survey Tibesti, and the ending of the first phase of the survey of other areas in June 2011 without completing the work and without having a clear date for resumption of survey activities is a matter of obvious regret. Demining operations started in August 2000 but stopped at the end of December 2005 due to lack of funding. There has since been only intermittent clearance of mined areas.

As noted above, in May 2012, Chad pledged to present a new strategic mine action plan to the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties, prior to submitting a new extension request before the end of March 2013.[38]

Casualties Overview

The Monitor recorded 34 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties in Chad. However, no further details about the type of device, the civil or military status or the age and sex of the victims were provided.[1] This represented an increase from the 28 mine/ERW casualties reported in Chad for 2010 but still a very significant decrease from the 131 casualties reported in 2008.[2] The National Demining Center (Centre National de Déminage, CND) reported nine new mine/ERW casualties between October 2010 and November 2011.[3] However it was not possible to compare this data with previous calendar years.

At least 2,864 mine/ERW casualties had been identified by the end of 2011: 1,149 people were killed, another 1,517 injured, and 198 unknown.[4]

The number of casualties caused by cluster munition remnants or the use of cluster munitions in Chad was not known due to a lack of detailed and comprehensive data collection.[5]

Victim Assistance

The total number of mine/ERW survivors in Chad is not known, though there were known to be more than 1,655.[6] In 2010, the CND estimated that there were at least 3,000 survivors and family members of people killed by mines/ERW in Chad.[7]

Services for mine/ERW survivors in Chad have been hampered by intermittent internal conflict and cross-border conflicts, as well as serious under-funding, through to 2011. Data on mine/ERW casualties is not adequate for use; information on the needs of survivors was not available. Most services were provided by the ICRC and NGOs. An overall need to establish services and capacities outside the capital N’Djamena and especially in remote and affected areas remained. As of 2012, for most services many survivors still needed to be transferred to N’Djamena, where facilities exist but were few and inadequate. Rehabilitation was limited to just two centers and those services were not free of charge unless covered by the ICRC, which also established a referral system and provided training. There was a persistent lack of physiotherapists and trained service providers; none worked in mine-affected areas. Psychosocial support, vocational training and economic reintegration opportunities for survivors and persons with disabilities were extremely limited; the situation was exacerbated by widespread societal discrimination against them. Legislation addressing persons with disabilities was not adequately enforced.[8] Government attention to victim assistance increased through 2010 and 2011 with the development of the National Action Plan on Victim Assistance, which was adopted in May 2012.

Assessing victim assistance needs

In 2011, no needs assessments were made in Chad. Data from a 2010 mine/ERW survivor survey and needs assessment carried out by CND, with the technical support of Handicap International (HI), had not been made public as of April 2012.[9] The CND saw a need to conduct a country-wide mapping study of all mine/ERW survivors as part of the implementation of the newly adopted National Action Plan on Victim Assistance. This study would update the 2010 needs assessment, which the CND did not consider to be comprehensive.[10]

Victim assistance coordination[11]

This first National Plan of Action on Victim Assistance was finalized over the course of 2011 with the assistance of international actors and its adoption was confirmed in May 2012.[12] The Plan of Action will be implemented in the period 2012 to 2014. It recognizes the principle of non-discrimination between mine/ERW victims and other victims and persons with disabilities.[13] The Plan of Action identifies five key priorities:

1.      Contact each survivor through organizations of mine/ERW victims and of persons with disabilities and assess their needs and the best way to respond.

2.      Identify and reinforce community networks (including disabled persons’ organizations).

3.      Map and improve victim assistance activities.

4.      Develop a network of actors within the communities to provide psychological support and provide information on available services to victims.

5.      Identify and train all service providers in affected regions on the specificities of victim assistance and improve accessibility to services in all parts of the country.[14]

No coordination meetings or events were organized in 2011 to finalize National Action Plan on Victim Assistance.[15] Coordination efforts in 2010 had been made around the drafting of the Action Plan.[16] In 2011, bilateral meetings were held between the CND and other stakeholders to coordinate activities. NGOs reported that no planning and coordination meetings on victim assistance were organized.[17] The lack of coordination meetings in 2011 was attributed to financial constraints.[18]

Implementation of the draft Action Plan had been delayed due to the existing problems with victim assistance, including financial difficulties, the distance of rehabilitation centers from affected areas, and a lack of international technical assistance. However, in 2012, Chad reported allocating funding from the Australian Government to victim assistance, which with the continued engagement of ICRC, was expected to strengthen existing rehabilitation centers, especially the Kabalaye Physical Rehabilitation Center (Centre d’Appareillage et de Rééducation de Kabalaye - CARK).[19]

Chad provided updates on progress and challenges for victim assistance at the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November 2011 and at the Convention on Cluster Munition and Mine Ban Treaty intersessional meetings in Geneva in April and May 2012.[20] Chad has not submitted Form J or a Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report since 2010.[21]

Inclusion and participation in victim assistance

At least one NGO noted a decrease in the inclusion of survivors and their representative organizations in activities of the Directorate of Awareness and Victim Assistance and also noted that survivors were not involved in decision making or participants on international delegations. Survivors and other persons with disabilities were involved in providing physical rehabilitation services and psychological support to other survivors.[22]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities in 2011[23]

There were no significant changes in the accessibility, availability, or quality of victim assistance services in Chad in 2011.

In 2011, the ICRC supported medical training, with a focus on war wounds and other surgical emergencies, for nursing students and their tutors at the regional hospital.[24]

The ICRC continued to provide financial and logistical assistance to survivors to increase access to rehabilitation services by allowing survivors living in remote areas to come to N’Djamena’s rehabilitation centers. ICRC paid for flights to the capital and also covered physical rehabilitation and costs including prostheses and physiotherapy services. Following the demolition of the AEHPT-run accommodation center in August 2010 which had been used by the ICRC for patients coming from outside the Capital,[25] only a limited number of beneficiaries with particular difficulties, especially those without any family members in N’Djamena, were provided with accommodation and food during their rehabilitation. These ad hoc services were only provided for two consecutive months in 2011 due to lack of accommodation space.[26] 

In 2012, the CND reported that work was underway on a new reception area at CARK, with the support of the ICRC, so that patients would no longer have to wait outside in the street before being seen. There was a need for the CARK to develop the capacity to train new personnel to work either directly at the Center or in other rehabilitation centers across the country.[27]

AEHPT provided psychological support and social inclusion services, as well as physical rehabilitation. The AEHPT strived to increase the geographical coverage of their activities but due to a lack of accessibility activities remained limited in remote areas of certain regions.[28]

A law adopted in 2007 protecting the rights of persons with disabilities remained inoperative by the end of 2011, pending the passing of a decree to make it enforceable.[29]  However, the law was used as the legal basis for a new policy enforced by Chad’s Ministry of Education to exempt all students with disabilities from tuition fees, as well as the children of persons with disabilities.[30] The Government made efforts to enforce legislation prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities in N’Djamena, but was unable to do so throughout the country.[31]

As of 1 June 2012, Chad had not signed the CRPD.

Support for Mine Action

Since 2007, the Government of Chad has contributed more than US$11 million to its mine action program, including US$2.93 million in 2011, its largest ever reported contribution.[1]

In 2010 and 2011, international contributions towards mine action in Chad were less than $2 million each year. In 2011, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland contributed a total of $1.84 million.[2] Finland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland were also donors to Chad mine action in 2010.

International contributions in 2011[3]

Summary of contributions in 2007–2011[4]