Egypt

Last Updated: 17 December 2012

Mine Ban Policy

Mine ban policy overview

Mine Ban Treaty status	Not a State Party
Pro-mine ban UNGA voting record	Abstained on Resolution 66/29 in December 2011, as in all previous years
Participation in Mine Ban Treaty meetings	Attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in May 2012.

After a popular revolution caused the collapse of the government led by Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, the country was ruled by a military council, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Elections to select a new parliament took place in November 2011. Elections for a new president were concluded in June 2012, but at the same time the entire newly elected parliament, tasked with writing a new constitution for the country, was disbanded by a ruling of the Constitutional Supreme Court. The Supreme Council was dismissed by the president in July 2012.

Policy

The Arab Republic of Egypt has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Egypt has often stated its reasons for opposing the treaty, including that antipersonnel mines are seen as a key means for securing its borders and that responsibility for clearance is not assigned in the treaty to those who laid the mines in the past.[1]

Before disbanded, the parliament adopted a series of recommendations of its defense and national security committee to the government; these included tasking the armed forces to prepare a study for landmine clearance (and its costs to be allocated in the new government general budget), to study Egypt’s position on the existing related international conventions regarding clearance and compensation from those who laid mines, and to accelerate the mine clearance operation in the northern coast of Egypt (including marking of not yet cleared areas). [2]

Egypt did not attend the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Phnom Penh in November–December 2011, but Egypt did attend the intersessional Standing Committee meetings for the Mine Ban Treaty in May 2012.

Egypt signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1981, but never ratified it. It attended as an observer the Thirteenth Annual Conference of State Parties to CCW Amended Protocol II on landmines in November 2011.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use

In July 2012, a retired military engineer, General Mohamed Khater, who was formerly in charge of mine clearance in the engineering corps, reportedly stated that the Egyptian Armed Forces laid a minefield in 2011 on the country’s border with Libya. He said the minefield was emplaced “some time ago,” presumably when forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi lost control of the border to anti-Gaddafi resistance fighters.[3] Landmine Monitor has not been able to verify this claim. There has only been one newspaper article which has carried the reported information and no substantiation from observers on the ground in either Egypt or Libya; the Egyptian government has not commented on the matter.

Egypt has stated that it stopped production of antipersonnel mines in 1988 and export in 1984.[4]

At the First Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in December 2004, Egypt’s Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister stated that “the Egyptian government has imposed a moratorium on all export and production activities related to anti-personnel mines.”[5] This was the first time that Egypt publicly and officially announced a moratorium on production.[6] The Monitor is not aware of any official decrees or laws to implement permanent prohibitions on production or export of antipersonnel mines.

Egypt is believed to have a large stockpile of antipersonnel mines, but no details are available on the size and composition of the stockpile, as it is considered a state secret.

[1] Egypt explained its abstention in voting on UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 65/48 in December 2010 as, “due to the particular nature of this instrument which was developed and concluded outside the multilateral context of the United Nations …. Egypt views this convention as lacking balance between the humanitarian consideration related to APLM [antipersonnel landmine] and their legitimate military use for border protection. Most importantly, the convention does not acknowledge the legal responsibility of States for demining APLM they themselves have laid, in particular in territories of other States, making it almost impossible for affected States to meet alone the Convention’s demining requirements….The mentioned weaknesses are only complemented by the weak international cooperation system of the Convention which remains limited in its effect and much dependent on the will of donor States. The mentioned weaknesses of Ottawa convention have kept the largest world producers and some of the world’s most heavily affected States outside its regime, making the potential for its universality questionable and reminding us all of the value of concluding arms-control and disarmament agreements in the context of United Nations and not outside its framework.” Statement of Egypt, “Explanation of Vote on Resolution on the Ottawa APLM Convention, L.8,” UNGA First Committee, New York, 27 October 2010.

[2] Nermen Abdelzaher, “The Parliament Agreed on the Defense and National Security Committee Recommendations to the Government,” Al Ahram (daily Arabic newspaper), Cairo, 8 May 2012.

[3] Ashraf Abouelhoul, “Continue to look after smuggled weapons from Libya,” Al Ahram, Cairo, 19 July 2012.

[4] See, for example, Statement of Egypt, Mine Ban Treaty Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 22 September 2006. See also Statement of Egypt, “Explanation of Vote on Resolution on the Ottawa APLM Convention, L.8,” UNGA First Committee, New York, 27 October 2010: “Egypt acknowledges the humanitarian considerations which the Ottawa Convention attempted to embody and had actually imposed, based on the same considerations, a moratorium on its landmine production and export since the 1980s, long before the conclusion of the Ottawa Convention itself.”

[5] Statement of Egypt, Mine Ban Treaty First Review Conference, Nairobi, 2 December 2004.

[6] Egypt told a UN assessment mission in February 2000 that it ceased export of antipersonnel mines in 1984 and ended production in 1988, and several Egyptian officials over the years also told the Monitor informally that production and trade had stopped. However, Egypt has not responded to repeated requests by the Monitor to make that position formal and public in writing. The Monitor has therefore kept Egypt on its list of producers. Egypt reportedly produced two types of low metal content blast antipersonnel mines, several variations of bounding fragmentation mines, and a Claymore-type mine. There is no publicly available evidence that Egypt has produced or exported antipersonnel mines in recent years. See Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 957.

Last Updated: 18 July 2012

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

The Arab Republic of Egypt has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In September 2011, Egypt informed the ban convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties that it “supports all efforts aimed at protecting civilians and supporting victims of cluster munitions” but said it wanted to “assert that negotiating such a convention outside the framework of the UN will produce a deficient legal system that will be abused to use cluster munitions.” Egypt argued that the ban convention “will not hold states which are using cluster munitions responsible for their acts, or will not hold them to account for clearing contaminated areas.”[1]

When the Convention on Cluster Munitions entered into force on 1 August 2010, Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement noting these and other concerns and concluded by expressing its hope that they would be addressed by the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015.[2]

Egypt participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and engaged in the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer, but did not attend the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.[3] Despite its engagement, in October 2008, Egypt expressed concern with both the “substantive content” of the convention and “the process which led to its conclusion outside the framework of the United Nations.”[4]

Egypt has participated in some meetings related to the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008. It attended an international meeting on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in June 2010. Egypt participated in intersessional meetings of the ban convention in Geneva in June 2011, but not in April 2012. It attended the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011.

Egypt is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Egypt signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1981, but has never ratified it or any of its protocols. Egypt attended the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in November 2011 as an observer, but it did not express its views on the chair’s draft text of a CCW protocol on cluster munitions. The Review Conference ended without reaching agreement on the draft protocol and with no proposals for continuing the negotiations in 2012, thus concluding the CCW’s work on cluster munitions.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Egypt has said that it has never used cluster munitions.[5] But it is a producer, importer, and stockpiler of the weapon. It is unclear if it has exported cluster munitions.[6]

The Helipolis Company for Chemical Industries produces 122mm and 130mm artillery projectiles which contain 18 and 28 M42D dual purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions, respectively.[7] The SAKR Factory for Developed Industries produces two types of 122mm surface-to-surface rockets: the SAKR-18 and SAKR-36, containing 72 and 98 M42D submunitions, respectively.[8] France declared that upon entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2010, France’s military retained six warheads for 122mm SAKR rockets containing 588 submunitions.[9]

Egypt has also imported a significant number of cluster munitions, primarily from the United States. The US provided at least 760 CBU-87 cluster bombs to Egypt as part of a foreign military sales program in the early 1990s.[10] Lockheed Martin Corporation was awarded a US$36 million contract to produce 485 M26A1 Extended Range Multiple Launch Rocket System rockets for Egypt in November 1991.[11] Between 1970 and 1995, the US also supplied Egypt with 1,300 Rockeye cluster bombs.[12]

Jane’s Information Group notes that KMG-U dispensers are in service for Egypt’s aircraft.[13] Additionally, Egypt possesses Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[14]

[1] Statement by Egypt, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011, http://bit.ly/Jzu62v. As per Conference interpretation.

[2] According to the statement, “Egypt did not sign the Convention till now due to a number of shortages in it, on the top of which is excluding several types of cluster munitions especially the munitions with advanced technology from the ban, and also the main countries that produce and use cluster munitions did not join the treaty, as well as the issue that the affected countries are the one [sic] that have to shoulder the main responsibility of clearing its lands of the cluster munitions.” Arab Republic of Egypt Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release, “The Official Spokesman welcomes the coming into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, on 1st August, 2010,” 2 August 2010.

[3] For details on Egypt’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 197–199.

[4] Egypt’s explanation of vote, UN General Assembly, First Committee, 30 October 2008.

[5] Statement by Ehab Fawzy, Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions, 22 February 2007. Notes by the CMC/WILPF.

[6] A number of SAKR rockets were found in the arsenal of Iraq by UN weapons inspectors possibly indicating export activity. The SAKR rockets were the “cargo variant” but had been modified by the Iraqis to deliver chemical weapons. “Sixteenth quarterly report on the activities of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission in accordance with paragraph 12 of Security Council resolution 1284 (1999) S/2004/160,” Annex 1, p. 10.

[7] Leland S. Ness and Anthony G. Williams, eds., Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2007–2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2007), pp. 582, 589–590.

[8] Ibid, p. 707.

[9] France, Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 Report, Form C, 31 January 2011, p. 92.

[10] “Dozen + Mideast Nations Bought Weapons since Gulf War,” Aerospace Daily, 10 December 1991; and Barbara Starr, “Apache buy will keep Israeli edge,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, 1 October 1992.

[11] US Department of Defense, “US Army Aviation & Missile Command Contract Announcement: DAAH01-00-C-0044,” Press release, 9 November 2001, www.defenselink.mil.

[12] US Defense Security Assistance Agency, Department of Defense, “Cluster Bomb Exports under FMS, FY1970-FY1995,” 5 November 1995, obtained by Human Rights Watch in a Freedom of Information Act request, 28 November 1995.

[13] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 838.

[14] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2005–2006 (London: Routledge, 2005), p. 185; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007−2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008, (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).

Last Updated: 17 December 2012

Mine Action

Contamination and Impact

Mines

Egypt is contaminated with mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), especially with unexploded ordnance (UXO) from World War II. Most of the battles took place in the area between the Quattara depression and Alamein at the Mediterranean coast. Other affected areas lie around the city of Marsa Matrouh and at Sallum near the Libyan border.[1]

The precise extent of contamination remains unknown. The joint Egypt/UNDP project document of November 2006 referred, improbably, to 2,680km² of contamination, which is almost four times the total estimated area of contamination in Afghanistan.[2] An April 2009 assessment by the UN Mine Action Team (UNMAT) cautioned that accumulated data needed to be carefully analyzed in order to not misrepresent the overall mine problem as well as to avoid reporting areas for demining that had already been cleared.[3]

In August 2010, the Executive Secretariat for the Demining and Development of the North West Coast (Executive Secretariat) reported to donors than the army had destroyed 2.9 million mines while clearing 38km² in five areas, leaving “more than 16 million mines” covering an estimated area of 248km².[4] A government statement reported the existence of a further 5.5 million mines in the Sinai and the Eastern Desert.[5]

The government of Egypt has planned to link mine clearance and development of the northwest coast area. Most projects will require demining support before starting. Population movement and population increases have put increased pressure on land usage, placing an ever-growing number of people close to mined areas.[6] Irrigation projects, a priority for Egypt, have experienced delays because of the need to clear mines and UXO.[7]

Cluster munition remnants and other explosive remnants of war

In October 2009, Egypt reported that three-quarters of ordnance remaining from World War II is ERW, while 2.5% are antipersonnel mines, and 22.5% are antivehicle mines.[8] In addition to World War II ordnance, ERW from armed conflicts between Egypt and Israel in 1956, 1967, and 1973 remain to be cleared, especially in eastern areas (the Sinai Peninsula and Red Sea coast).[9] Egypt is not believed to be contaminated with cluster munition remnants.

The Executive Secretariat’s 2010–2015 risk education (RE) strategy document identified males over 18 years of age as the primary target group for mine/ERW risk education as they represent 94% of all casualties. Most mine accidents occur during herding and farming. Young boys are also an important target group as they frequently help in the fields.[10]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

Body	Situation on 1 January 2012
National Mine Action Authority	National Committee for Supervising Mine Clearance and the Development of the North West Coast
Mine Action Center	Executive Secretariat for the Demining and Development of the North West Coast
National demining operators	Egyptian Military Corps of Engineers
National risk education operators	Ministries of agriculture, education, health, and social solidarity; and the Egypt State Information Service

In 2000, the Prime Minister issued a decree establishing a National Committee for Supervising Mine Clearance and the Development of the North West Coast (National Committee) to supervise the demining of this area. The National Committee serves as the focal body for the North West Coast Development Plan, approved in October 2005 by the Cabinet of Ministers, and for mine action coordination within the Egyptian government. The committee, chaired by the Minister of International Cooperation, oversees and coordinates mine action activities. The committee consists of 20 ministries, four governorates, and five NGOs.

The “Support to the North West Coast Development Plan and Mine Action Program” between the Ministry of International Cooperation and UNDP was signed in November 2006. This project constituted “Phase I” and focused on the establishment of the Executive Secretariat, the development of a communication and resource mobilization strategy, a pilot demining operation, the introduction of mine/ERW risk education, and a plan for a Phase II.

The mine action program has been stalled since 2009 when Phase I was completed. The start of Phase II covering 2011–2015 was supposed to expand mine clearance operations, facilitate development in the region, strengthen the Executive Secretariat, and mobilize more resources, but was again delayed in 2011 due to lack of funding and political events in Egypt.[11]

In February 2012, a UNDP consultant redrafted the Phase II project document, but according to the Director of the Executive Secretariat, the draft “is not close to being finalized and requires discussion between UNDP and the Egyptian Government.”[12]

Land Release

Egypt reported the release of 38.73km² in 2006–2009, approximately 13% of the baseline estimate of 248km². Since then, there has been no further release of mined or battle areas.[13]

Summary of land release: November 2006–October 2009 (Phase I)[14]

Area	SHA reportedly cleared (km²)	SHA remaining (km²)
Alamein	19.90	147.10
Salloum	7.73	44.77
El Hekma and Matrouh	6.80	55.20
Alexandria	4.30	1.20
Totals	38.73	248.27

SHA = suspect hazardous area

Mine clearance in 2011

No mine clearance occurred in 2011, nor was there any clearance in 2010.[15]

Risk Education

To date, only limited and ad hoc mine/ERW risk education (RE) activities have been reported in Egypt in the last 10 years. In 2010, 15,000 students were targeted in coordination with the Ministries of Education and the Environment, the Matrouh governorate, the Egypt State Information Service, and the Hanns Siedle Foundation—an international development agency that has been operating in Egypt since 1978.[16] A second RE school campaign was scheduled to begin in 2012.[17]

[1] “Demining for Development Mine Action in the North West Coast of Egypt,” Presentation by Ulrich Tietze, Chief Technical Advisor, UNDP, International Conference on the Impact of Landmines and Development, Tripoli, Libya, 3–4 November 2008.

[2] Government of Egypt and UNDP, “Support to the North West Coast Development Plan and Mine Action,” Project document, Cairo, November 2006, p. 5.

[3] UNMAT, “Egypt Mine Action Inter-agency Assessment,” 14–18 April 2009, p. 11. http://erc.undp.org/evaluationadmin/manageevaluation/viewevaluationdetail.html?evalid=3644.

[4] “Egypt Mine Action Project Northwest Coast: Phase I Accomplishments,” Presentation by Amb. Fathy El Shazly, Director, Executive Secretariat, Cairo, August 2010.

[5] Mohamed Abdel Salam, “First phase of demining in Egypt complete,” Bikyamasr (blog), 18 April 2010. http://bikyamasr.com/11666/first-phase-of-demining-in-egypt-complete/.

[6] UN, “2011 Portfolio of Mine Action Projects,” New York, March 2011, p. 146.

[7] Presentation by Ulrich Tietze, UNDP, International Conference on the Impact of Landmines and Development, Tripoli, Libya, 3–4 November 2008.

[8] Ministry of International Cooperation, “Demining for Development Project: Concept Paper and Progress Report,” Cairo, October 2009, p. 7; and email from Amb. Fathy El Shazly, Director, Executive Secretariat, 21 May 2010.

[9] Government of Egypt and UNDP, “Support to the North West Coast Development Plan and Mine Action,” Project document, Cairo, November 2006, p. 5.

[10] Ministry of International Cooperation Executive Secretariat for the Development and Demining of the Northwest Coast, “Mine Risk Education Strategy 2010–2015,” 2010.

[11] Interview with Amb. Fathy El Shazly, Executive Secretariat, in Geneva, 21 March 2012.

[12] Email from Amb. Fathy El Shazly, Executive Secretariat, 12 April 2012 and “CTA to visit Executive Secretariat to draft phase II of the project,” 5 February 2012.

[13] Interview with Amb. Fathy El Shazly, Executive Secretariat, in Geneva, 22 March 2012.

[14] Email from Amb. Fathy El Shazly, Executive Secretariat, 21 May 2010.

[15] Interview with Amb. Fathy El Shazly, Executive Secretariat, in Geneva, 22 March 2012.

[16] “Egypt Mine Action Project Northwest Coast: Phase I Accomplishments,” Presentation by Amb. Fathy El Shazly, Executive Secretariat, Cairo, August 2010; and Hanns Siedle Foundation, “Publications: I Want a Safe Land”, 2011.

[17] Interview with Amb. Fathy El Shazly, Executive Secretariat, in Geneva, 22 March 2012.

Last Updated: 17 December 2012

Casualties and Victim Assistance

Casualties Overview

All known casualties by end 2011	Estimated to be over 8,000
Casualties in 2011	21 (2010: 26)
2011 casualties by outcome	7 Killed, 14 Injured (2010: 6 killed; 20 injured)
2011 casualties by device type	21 mines/ERW

In 2011 21 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties were recorded in Egypt. All of the casualties were adult men; one was military.[1] This was a continuing decrease from the 26 casualties identified in 2010 and the 41 casualties in 2009.[2] One casualty occurred as an Egyptian attempted to cross the border with Libya.

An Egyptian national was injured by a landmine in March of 2011 while working on a construction site in Tobruk, Libya.[3]

Several sources have estimated the total number of known casualties to be around 8,000. However, the period of data collection for these statistics is not reported. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported in 2006 that there had been 8,313 mine casualties (696 people killed; 7,617 injured; 5,017 were civilians) in the Western Desert since 1982.[4] Almost identical statistics were reported in 1998, but for the period 1945–1996.[5]

Victim Assistance

In 2010, there were estimated to be at least 900 mine/ERW survivors in Egypt.[6] By the end of 2010, detailed information had been collected on 686 survivors in the Matruh governorate.[7] This database was believed to include information on 91% to 95% of all mine/ERW survivors in the governorate.[8] No data was available on survivors based outside of Matruh.

Survivor data collected by the Executive Secretariat in 2008 was used in 2010 to facilitate assistance for some survivors who required it and to register all survivors within the national pension system through the Ministry of Social Solidarity.[9] No information was available on needs assessments carried out in 2010.

Victim assistance coordination

Victim assistance coordination[10]

Government coordinating body/focal point	Executive Secretariat (for Matruh governorate)
Coordinating mechanism	National Committee for Supervising the Demining of the North West Coast (National Committee): supervisory role for Executive Secretariat
Plan	None; project strategy for Executive Secretariat includes victim assistance objectives

The National Committee technically provides oversight for all mine action activities undertaken by the Executive Secretariat, including victim assistance. These activities are restricted to the Matruh governorate; there is no victim assistance coordination for the rest of Egypt. The committee is comprised of representatives from 20 ministries, local officials from four governorates, and from several NGOs. Among the objectives of the Executive Secretariat’s second phase of its activities, which started in 2010, are to “support landmine victims of the north west coast,” to “complete and consistently update Victims Database [sic]” and to “mobilize more resources and expand victim assistance activities.”[11] The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Solidarity shared responsibility for protecting the rights of all persons with disabilities in Egypt.[12]

In early 2011, survivors in Matruh governorate objected to the role of the Executive Secretariat in coordinating victim assistance and asserted that it had been “careless” while calling for the resignation of its director.[13] They also called on the Ministry of Social Solidarity to assume responsibility for victim assistance.[14] Survivor participation in victim assistance was not organized; in media interviews, an ad hoc group of concerned survivors spoke out about the need to have their voices directly included in coordination efforts.[15]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[16]

Name of organization	Type of organization	Type of activity	Changes in quality/coverage of service in 2010
Executive Secretariat	UNDP/government project	Emergency evacuation procedures for explosion incidents; physical rehabilitation and prosthetics at the army-run Al-Agouza Center for Rehabilitation, the only provider of comprehensive rehabilitation services in the country; designed income-generating projects	Increased the number of survivors receiving prostheses
Matruh Health and Solidarity Department	Local government	Financial support for ongoing maintenance of mobility devices	Ongoing
Ministry of Social Solidarity	National government	Coverage for all registered survivors in national pension system	Ongoing
Association of Landmines Survivors for Economic Development—Marsa Matruh	Local Survivors’ Association	Facilitating access to physical rehabilitation services and income generating activities in Matruh governorate	Unknown
Protection	National NGO	Facilitating access to social benefits or employment for mine/ERW survivors; Data collection on mine/ERW casualties	Ongoing
Arab Doctors Union	Regional NGO	Physical rehabilitation for survivors in Matruh governorate	Project to provide prosthetics launched in June 2010

There were few reported changes in the accessibility or quality of victim assistance services for mine/ERW survivors in 2011.

Increased donor support provided via the Executive Secretariat, along with the launch of a physical rehabilitation project by the Arab Doctors Union, increased the number of survivors who were able to receive prosthetics and other mobility devices.[17] Survivors reported dissatisfaction with the quality of prosthetic devices.[18]

No information was available on psychological assistance for mine/ERW survivors in 2011.

In January 2011, the Executive Secretariat signed a cooperation agreement with the Association of Landmine Survivors in Matruh to begin supporting income generating activities with members of the association, based on a feasibility study conducted in 2010.[19]

A consulting role for victim assistance through income-generating projects was assigned in 2012. The consultancy mission aimed to identify potential income-generating projects in close consultation with the final beneficiaries, as well as to select the civil society organizations to manage the income-generating projects for the selected group of mine survivors and their families. As a result of the findings of the consultancy, a capacity-building program was planned for February 2012, targeting four NGOs working in the field of victim assistance. Activities were to include gender-sensitive micro-credit loans assigned for female landmine survivors and members of families of deceased males. Training was recommended in various fields such as proposal writing; communication with donors; governmental stakeholders, prospective partners and donors; laws and constitutional issues; management skills; and revolving micro-credit.[20]

Egypt had no legislation concerning prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities in education, concerning access to healthcare, or concerning the provision of other state services; discrimination remained widespread.[21]

Egypt ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 14 April 2008.

^{^[1]} “Information collected by Protection and Mine Action and Human Rights Foundation in Egypt,” by email from Ayman Sorour, Director, Protection, 1 September 2012.

^{^[2]} Ibid., 11 April 2011 and 1 July 2010.

[3] Ibid., 1 September 2011. This casualty occurred in Libya and is not included in the Egyptian casualty total.

^{^[4]} Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, “A paper on the problem of Landmines in Egypt,” 27 July 2006, www.mfa.gov.eg.

^{^[5]} Notes taken by the Monitor, Beirut Conference, 11 February 1999; Ministry of Defense, “The Iron Killers,” undated, pp. 3–4; and Amb. Dr. Mahmoud Karem, “Explanation of Vote by the Delegation of the Arab Republic of Egypt on the Resolution on Anti-Personal Landmines,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Policy Document, November 1998. Similar figures cited in a Ministry of Foreign Affairs paper on the Mine Ban Treaty, obtained 5 September 2004, were at the time believed to only apply to casualties occurring in the Western Desert since 1982.

^{^[6]} This estimate is not for a specified time period though the implication is that it is for all time to the present. Mohamed Abdel Salam, “Egypt Seeks Cooperation in De-Mining Efforts,” Bikyamasr, www.bikyamasr.com; and “Egypt intensifies demining efforts,” Bikyamasr, 4 February 2010, www.bikyamasr.com.

^{^[7]} Egypt Mine Action Project North West Coast, “What is victim assistance?,” www.mineactionegypt.com.

[8] Executive Secretariat, “The NWC Local Context and Victim Assistance Strategy Paper,” Cairo, undated but 2010, www.mineactionegypt.com, p. 17.

[9] Ibid., pp. 14, 16–17.

[10] Egypt Mine Action Project North West Coast, “About the Project,” undated, www.mineactionegypt.com.

^{^[11]} Ibid.

^{^[12]} US Department of State, “2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Egypt,” Washington, DC, 8 April 2011.

[13] Hassan Mashaly, “Landmine Victims in Matruh Ask for the Resignation of Ambassador Fatahi El Shezlui,” Alyoum Alsabe (Egyptian newspaper), 12 April 2011, http://www1.youm7.com/default.asp.

[14] Achmed Nefadi, “The Army Interfered to Prevent Dispute between Mine Victims and Ambassador El Shezlui,” El Ahram (Egyptian newspaper), 12 April 2011, www.gate.ahram.org.eg.

[15] Hassan Mashaly, “Landmine Victims in Matruh Ask for the Resignation of Ambassador Fatahi El Shezlui,” Alyoum Alsabe (Egyptian newspaper), 12 April 2011, http://www1.youm7.com/default.asp.

^{^[16]} Egypt Mine Action Project North West Coast, “What is victim assistance?,” www.mineactionegypt.com; Egypt Mine Action Project North West Coast, “Protocol of Cooperation in the field of Victim Assistance,” 24 January 2011, www.mineactionegypt.com; email from Ayman Sorour, Protection, 11 April 2011; Executive Secretariat, “The NWC Local Context and Victim Assistance Strategy Paper,” Cairo, undated but 2010, www.mineactionegypt.com, p. 14; .and Arab Doctors Union, www.amueg.com.

[17] Egypt Mine Action Project North West Coast, “What is victim assistance?,” www.mineactionegypt.com; and Arab Doctors Union, www.amueg.com.

[18] Achmed Nefadi, “The Army Interfered to Prevent Dispute between Mine Victims and Ambassador El Shezlui,” El Ahram (Egyptian newspaper), 12 April 2011, www.gate.ahram.org.eg, accessed 27 June 2011.

[19] Ibid.; and Egypt Mine Action Project North West Coast, “Protocol of Cooperation in the field of Victim Assistance,” 24 January 2011, www.mineactionegypt.com.

[20] Executive Secretariat, NGOs Capacity Building in Matrouh, www.egyptmineaction.com/web/en/usaid-director-field-visit/.

^{^[21]} US Department of State, “2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Egypt,” Washington, DC, 24 May 2012.

Last Updated: 10 September 2012

Support for Mine Action

The mine action program in Egypt has been stalled since 2009 when phase I was completed. The start of phase II covering 2011–2015 was supposed to expand mine clearance operations, facilitate development in the region, strengthen the Executive Secretariat, and mobilize more resources, but was again delayed in 2011 due to lack of funding and political events in Egypt.[1]

Nonetheless, Australia, Germany, and Slovenia all reported contributions to Egypt’s mine action program in 2011.[2] Slovenia’s contribution through the International Trust Fund Enhancing Human Security (ITF) went towards training five Egyptian physical and rehabilitation specialists at the University Rehabilitation Institute in Ljubljana in June 2011.[3]

Egypt has only reported a national contribution once, in 2009.

International contributions: 2011[4]

Donor	Sector	Amount (national currency)	Amount (US$)
Germany	Clearance	€500,000	696,550
Australia	Clearance	A$500,000	516,600
Slovenia	Victim assistance	€168,387	34,782
Total			1,247,932

Summary of contributions in 2007–2011[5]

Year	National contributions (US$)	International contributions (US$)	Total contributions (US$)
2011	N/R	1,247,932	1,247,932
2010	N/R	722,886	722,886
2009	483,647	N/R	483,647
2008	N/R	918,244	918,244
2007	N/R	1,235,565	1,235,565
Totals	483,647	4,124,627	4,608,274

N/R = Not reported

[1] Interview with Amb. Fathy El Shazly, Executive Secretariat, in Geneva, 21 March 2012.

[2] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Lt.-Col. Klaus Koppetsch, Desk Officer Mine Action, German Federal Foreign Office, 20 April 2012; response to Monitor questionnaire by Christine Pahlman, Mine Action Coordinator, AusAID, 24 April 2012; and ITF, “Donors 2011.”

[3] ITF, “Annual Report 2011,” p. 105.

[4] EU Average exchange rate for 2011: €1.3931 = US$1. Australia Average exchange rate for 2011: A$1=1.0332 = US$1.US Federal Reserve, “List of Exchange Rates (Annual),” 3 January 2012.

[5] See previous editions of Landmine Monitor; and ICBL-CMC, “Country Profile: Egypt: Support for Mine Action,” 24 August 2011.