Somalia
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The Republic of Somalia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.
The status of ratification was not known as of May 2011. Previously, in June 2010, the Office of the Prime Minister passed documents related to ratification of the convention to the Ministry of Defense for consultation.[1]
Somalia attended one meeting of the Oslo Process that produced the convention (Vienna in December 2007).[2] Somalia has not participated in any international or regional meetings on cluster munitions since the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.
Somalia is the only state from Sub-Saharan Africa that has not joined the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Somalia campaigners conducted media outreach and held an event in Mogadishu to celebrate the 1 August 2010 entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[3]
Somalia is not believed to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.
[1] Email from Eng. Dahir Abdirahman Abdulle, Technical Advisor, Somalia Coalition to Ban Landmines, 7 August 2010.
[2] For details on Somalia’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 153.
[3] CMC, “Entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions Report: 1 August 2010,” November 2010, p. 25.