Contamination and Impact

Mines

In June 2011, Nigeria announced that it had cleared all known mined areas from its territory. It pledged to make a detailed, formal declaration of completion to the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty.[1] In May 2009, Nigeria reported a possible mine threat left over from the Biafra conflict in the 1960s to the intersessional Standing Committee meetings.[2] It subsequently reported that improvised antipersonnel mines of a type known as “Ogbunigwe” had been found in the east of the country.[3]

Survey by a commercial company in 2009 identified mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination in 327 suspected hazardous areas across 10 states: Abia, Akwa, Anambra, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Ibom, Imo, and River. It was reported in May 2010 that clearance operations had found and destroyed a total of 1,466 antipersonnel mines (820 conventional antipersonnel mines; 646 “Ogbunigwe” mines), as well as 426 other improvised explosive devices. The heaviest contamination was in Imo state.[4]

Cluster munition remnants and other explosive remnants of war

There is no evidence of a problem with cluster munition remnants, but there may be a residual ERW problem from the Biafra conflict. A total of 9,379 ERW were found and destroyed during demining operations in 2009–2010.[5]

Mine Action Program

The Nigerian government constituted an “Inter-Ministerial Committee on Pre-enumeration [of] mine victims and removal of mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW)” to ensure compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty as well as clearance of ERW. The Committee consists of 15 representatives of relevant ministries, departments, and NGOs.[6] A de facto mine action center was established in Imo state during the demining in 2009–2010.[7]

Land Release

The government contracted a consultant to conduct a survey of affected areas beginning in January 2009. Nigeria stated in its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for 2006–2009 that 665 improvised antipersonnel mines were destroyed during 2009. Some were blown up in situ while others “were recovered for destruction at Enugu, Nigeria on 29 June 2009.”[8]

A total of 1,115 personnel were engaged in the demining effort: 183 deminers and 932 support staff.[9]

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, Nigeria is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2012. In December 2009, at the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty, Nigeria stated that, “as soon as some limited numbers of anti-personnel landmines were discovered in some parts of Nigeria, we took prompt action to identify and to destroy these mines to protect civilian lives and community livelihoods.”[10] As noted above, a formal statement of compliance with Article 5 is expected to be made to the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties.

Other Risk Reduction Measures

RSB Holdings Limited (RSB), the demining contractor, is said to have developed a significant mine/ERW risk education (RE) program for the population of southeast Nigeria, including radio and television campaigns and the distribution of posters, as well as RE training sessions throughout the affected region. RSB also established a “hot-line” for populations to report ERW, which received more than 1,000 calls as of July 2009. All data received from RE sessions and “hot-line” calls are reported to have been fed back into the tasking and prioritizing mechanism.[11]