Policy

The Central African Republic (CAR) acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 8 November 2002, becoming a State Party on 1 May 2003.

CAR has declared that existing legislation is sufficient to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically.[1] It submitted an initial Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in November 2004, but has not submitted any subsequent annual reports.

CAR did not participate in the Ottawa Process leading up to the Mine Ban Treaty. It has attended two Mine Ban Treaty Meeting of States Parties, in September 2002 (when it announced its intention to join the treaty) and in 2005, in addition to some meetings of the intersessional Standing Committees in Geneva. Since 2005, CAR has not attended any meeting of the treaty, including the Second and Third Review Conferences, the meetings of States Parties, and the intersessional meetings.

CAR is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

CAR has reported that it has not produced, exported, or imported antipersonnel mines, including for training purposes, and it is not known to have ever used them.[2]

There have been no reports of antipersonnel mine use in the internal conflict between the government and rebel forces since 2013.

However, several types of landmines, including M19 and TC/6 antivehicle mines and NR442 antipersonnel mines, were photographed by researchers from Human Rights Watch (HRW) and by a journalist from France24 News in February 2014 among the weapons seized from armed groups by French forces near Mpoko.[3]

Also, the Belgian-made NR442 bounding fragmentation mines and the containers for the pressure fuzes for the mines appear in a photo released by the French Ministry of Defense in February 2014. These mines were destroyed by explosive ordnance disposal experts from the French peacekeeping mission as part of Operation Sangaris.[4]

Mines were also present in photographs taken on 30 June 2014 when UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) visited Camp du Roux where poorly stored ammunition was found and assessed.[5]

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Central African Republic signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

Government representatives have informed the CMC that internal conflict between the government and rebel forces has prevented ratification of the convention from proceeding.[1] The Seleka coalition of different rebel groups led by Michel Djotodia took control of the national government on 24 March 2013. At the request of neighboring nations, a National Transitional Council was formed. Djotodia departed office in January 2014 and the National Transitional Council subsequently elected Catherine Samba-Panza as interim president.

Prior to the current conflict, government officials indicated that the ratification was on track.[2]

The Central African Republic participated in a regional meeting (Kampala, Uganda in September 2008) of the diplomatic Oslo Process that created the convention.[3] It has participated in several meetings related to the convention since 2008, including regional conferences on cluster munitions held in Accra, Ghana in May 2012 and in Lomé, Togo in May 2013.

The Central African Republic attended the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013, but did not make a statement. It has not participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings held in Geneva.

At the Lomé regional seminar on the convention, the Central African Republic did not make a statement, but its representative discussed the status of ratification with the CMC. The Central African Republic endorsed the Lomé Strategy on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which commits governments to undertake specific and concerted actions to ensure that all African states that have not yet ratified or acceded to the convention to do so at the earliest opportunity.

The Central African Republic has not made a national statement condemning Syria’s use of cluster munitions, but it voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that strongly condemned “the use by the Syrian authorities of...cluster munitions” on 15 May 2013.[4] The Central African Republic also endorsed the Lomé Strategy, which expresses “grave concern over the recent and on-going use of cluster munitions” and calls for the immediate end to the use of these weapons.[5]

The Central African Republic is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

The Central African Republic has stated that it has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions and that it is not affected by cluster munition remnants.[6] In September 2011, the Central African Republic stated that it had destroyed a considerable stockpile of cluster munitions.[7] In May 2012, a government representative clarified that the cluster munitions were recovered from a non-state armed group operating within the country.[8]