Mine Ban Policy

The Republic of Namibia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 21 September 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. In 2009, Namibia reported that it views the Explosive Act of 1956 as “sufficient” legal measures to ensure implementation of the treaty.[1] The Mine Ban Treaty is also viewed as part of national law under the Namibian Constitution.[2] 

Namibia last submitted an annual updated Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in April 2010, covering calendar year 2009.[3]

Namibia did not participate in the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in November–December 2010.

Namibia is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, use, stockpile destruction, and retention

Namibia maintains that it has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines and that it obtained mines as “leftovers during the liberation struggle.”[4] There have been no serious allegations of use of antipersonnel mines by Namibian forces since the April 2002 peace agreement in Angola.[5]

In 2004, Namibia reported that by May 1998 it had destroyed 21,857 stockpiled antipersonnel mines and was retaining 9,999 mines.[6] By the end of 2005, it had reduced the number of retained mines to 3,899.[7] In April 2009, Namibia reported a reduced total of 1,734 mines retained for training and stated that 2,165 mines were destroyed “in past years” in “training of our troops and deminers in order to enabled them to identify and learn how to detect, handle, neutralize and destroy the mines wherever been found.”[8] In April 2010, Namibia further reduced the total number of mines retained for training by 100 to 1,634 mines, but reported the transfer for the purposes of training of a 400 PMD-6 mines as well as 20 “Mine Sharpener” and two Claymore mines.[9]

Namibia did not report in detail on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, as agreed by States Parties.

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

In May 2012, a government official confirmed that Namibia intends to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions and committed to provide further information at the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012.[1]Previously, an official told the CMC that the government had approved ratification and aimed to complete the process by the end of 2010.[2]

Namibia participated in two Africa regional meetings held during the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[3]Ithas continued to engage in the work of the convention. Namibiaattended the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010 andthe Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, but did not make any statements at either meeting. Namibia did not attend the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2011 or April 2012.

Namibia attended the Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention onCluster Munitionsin May 2012, where it provided an update on ratification. At the conference, Namibia endorsed the Accra Universalization Action Plan, which among other actions, encourages states not party to the convention to “take all necessary steps” to ratify by the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012.

Namibia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Convention on Conventional Weapons

Namibia is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but it attended the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in November 2011 as an observer. On the final day of the conference, Namibia was one of 50 countries that issued a joint statement declaring that there was no consensus on the draft protocol and that it did not address fundamental humanitarian concerns.[4] The Review Conference ended without reaching agreement on the draft protocol, thus concluding the CCW’s work on cluster munitions.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Namibia has stated that it does not stockpile cluster munitions.[5] It is not known to have used, produced, imported, or exported them. It is, however, reported to possess Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[6]

Contamination and Impact

Mines

The extent of any mine problem in the Republic of Namibia remains unclear. According to its most recent Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report covering 2009, Namibia has no known or suspected mined areas containing antipersonnel mines.[1] It further reports that it completed demining operations in 2001,[2] although, as noted below, mines have been cleared subsequently. At the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in December 2009, Namibia claimed that it was in full compliance with Article 5 of the treaty.[3]

Despite this declaration, there are indications that Namibia still has a mine problem. In late 2009, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism is reported to have claimed it “will need between N$3 million [US$369,420] and N$5 million [$615,700] for a landmine clearance operation along the border between Bwabwata National Park in Caprivi region and Angola that emerged from a brutal conflict several years ago.”[4] At the Third Continental Conference of African Experts on Landmines in Pretoria in 2009, Namibia reported that a mine incident had occurred that year.[5] The location of the incident was not reported. Furthermore, Namibia received training in humanitarian demining from the United States (US) Department of Defense between October 2009 and September 2010.[6]

Other governments have warned of a possible mine threat in Namibia. In April 2011, Australia repeated its warning that: “In the Kavango and Caprivi regions of north-eastern Namibia, particularly in areas bordering Angola, you should stay on well-travelled routes. Unexploded landmines and munitions remain in these regions.”[7] The same month, Canada warned travelers to be aware of the presence of mines in the border area from Katwitwi (a village on the Okavango River in western Kavango region) to Kongola town (Caprivi region).[8]

Cluster munition remnants and other explosive remnants of war

Namibia has a problem with explosive remnants of war (ERW), particularly unexploded ordnance (UXO). Indeed, in its 2009 Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report, Namibia acknowledged that “isolated cases of UXOs do occur.”[9] UXO has been found around former shooting ranges and consisted of grenades either from the South African Defence Forces or from three South African ammunition storage areas in the north that exploded in the 1990s.[10] From January 2006 to June 2007, Namibian police reported finding more than 11,000 items of UXO while finding 17 mines during the same period.[11] There is no evidence of any cluster munition remnants in Namibia.

Mine Action Program

There is no national mine action authority or mine action center in Namibia. The Namibian Defence Force has a mine focal point who reports to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defence. The Namibian Defence Force is nominally responsible for mine clearance, and the Police Explosives Unit is responsible for clearing ERW (although it also reports on mine clearance).[12]

Land Release

There were no reports of demining or clearance of ERW in 2009 or 2010.

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, Namibia was required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2009. Namibia did not apply for an extension of its Article 5 deadline. At the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in December 2009, Namibia said it had completed the full destruction of antipersonnel mines in all mined areas and was in full compliance with Article 5.[13]

Other Risk Reduction Measures

In 2008, UNICEF said it did not conduct mine/ERW risk education (RE) in Namibia because mines were not a major problem.[14]The Police Explosives Unit requested assistance for RE but has not received support since 2004.[15]