Contamination and Impact

Chad is contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) resulting from the 1973 Libyan invasion and 30 years of internal conflict, which continues to this day, but the precise extent of this contamination still remains to be quantified.

Earlier estimates of 670km² or more of suspect hazardous areas (SHAs) outside the northern Tibesti region, identified as a result of a 1999–2001 Landmine Impact Survey[1] and subsequent survey and clearance, are widely believed to overstate the true extent of the problem today. A new survey of SHAs, which after prolonged delays began in September 2010, was expected to clarify the situation across much of the country.[2] Nine administrative regions of Chad are considered as mine/ERW contaminated.[3]

By May 2011, under contract to UNDP, the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) had carried out the survey of seven of nine contaminated regions.[4] Previously unknown hazardous areas are said to have been identified north of Faya Largeau.[5] As of May 2011, MAG teams had located 28 mined areas and 37 areas contaminated by unexploded ordnance (UXO); 49km² of contaminated areas have been marked.[6] Phase 1 of the survey ended at the beginning of June 2011 and, following further bureaucratic delays, Phase 2 only began in May 2012.[7]

Mines

MAG identified or confirmed 28 mined areas during the first phase of the survey, the operational phase of which ended in June 2011.[8] The estimated area of contamination had not been made public. The analysis and consolidation of the data were planned to be finalized by mid-July.[9] It was still necessary to survey two regions located in the east of the country (and other specific SHAs)—Ouaddaï and Wadi Fira—although contamination was not expected to be very heavy.[10]

Cluster munition remnants

Contamination includes cluster munition remnants. MAG has found unexploded Soviet antitank PETAB-1.5 submunitions during survey in an area close to Faya Largeau.[11] Further surveys in the Gouro area (the far northeast of Borkou region) are likely also to reveal areas contaminated by cluster munitions.[12] In the east of Chad, however, no submunitions were cleared by MineTech, the demining contractor for the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT).[13]

Following the end of the conflict with Libya in 1987, unexploded submunitions and cluster munition containers were found in the three northern provinces, in the Biltine department in Wadi Fira region (northeastern Chad), and east of the capital, N’Djamena.[14] On 3 December 2008 at the signing conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the representative of Chad spoke of “vast swathes of territory” contaminated with “mines and UXO (munitions and submunitions).”[15]

Other explosive remnants of war

The extent of other ERW contamination is similarly not known, although recent conflict, particularly in the east, has added to the existing problem. In 2008, the UN secretary-general referred to “vast quantities of unexploded ordnance and other explosive remnants of war” across eastern Chad.[16] In July 2009, the secretary-general stated that air attacks by the Chadian armed forces against non-state armed groups had resulted in a new UXO threat which subsequently “claimed the lives of at least six children in the Dar Sila region and resulted in school closures and restricted access to farmland.”[17]

In November 2007, the then-coordinator of the National Demining Center (Centre National de Déminage, CND) had claimed that ERW posed a greater humanitarian threat than mines but promised to “expand our minefield survey and clearance capacity, without abandoning our commitment to addressing the ERW contamination that is killing and injuring Chadians now.”[18] In July 2010, MINURCAT stated, “The general consensus of all stakeholders is that the ERW threat presently poses a greater risk to affected populations than mines and extent of ERW contamination is largely unknown, although anecdotal evidence suggests that there are significant levels of ERW presence resulting from failure of both indirect and direct fire munitions. The fluid nature of the ongoing conflict has left significant amounts of abandoned ammunition and UXO within the MINURCAT AOR [area of responsibility].”[19] In addition, the Salamat region and the Central African Republic were believed to have a “high level of ERW contamination” but due to security constraints were not subject to any clearance or road verification activity from MINURCAT’s teams.[20]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

The Steering Committee of the Haut Commissariat National de Déminage (High Commission for National Demining, HCND), which is chaired by the secretary-general of the Ministry of Economy and Cooperation, is responsible for mine action regulation, policy, and resource mobilization.

All mine action operations are coordinated by the CND, whose work is overseen by the Steering Committee. Four CND regional centers coordinate activities within their respective zones in Abéché, Bardaï, Fada, and Faya. A “sub-center” was subsequently created by the CND in Am Timan. In early 2010, the President of Chad passed a Presidential Decree appointing a Special Regional Delegate to the CND’s Tibesti office, located in what is believed to be Chad’s most mine-affected area.[21] A new CND coordinator was also appointed.[22]

After prolonged delays ascribed to internal UN bureaucracy,[23] a contract to conduct a large-scale survey of contamination was signed with MAG in May 2010. Due to these delays, MAG had left Chad in January 2010, but it returned in the summer to conduct the survey and further demining.[24] By the end of the one-year contract, two regions remained to be surveyed. It was not known when these areas would be surveyed, nor were there any concrete plans to conduct the survey of Tibesti.[25] In May 2012, Chad pledged to present a new strategic mine action plan to the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties.[26]

The MINURCAT Mine Action Unit has been responsible for coordinating all mine action capacities within its area of operations. The Mine Action Unit is based at the MINURCAT headquarters in Abéché, with MineTech as the sole MINURCAT Mine Action Unit contractor.[27] In 2010, in preparation for the withdrawal of MINURCAT, the number of mine action survey and clearance teams was reduced from four to three (located in Abéché, Farchana, and Goz Beida). The UN secretary-general reported to the UN Security Council that outstanding tasks—surveying more than 3,000km of road, clearing 32 battle areas, and completing more than 150 general mine action assessments—could not be completed before the end of 2010. Those activities were being handed over to the CND.[28]

Recent program evaluations

There has been no recent evaluation of the mine action program.[29]

Land Release

Release of mined areas has been significantly reduced in recent years in Chad, with battle area clearance continuing intermittently. MAG ceased clearance operations in 2009 but deployed again for survey and clearance in June 2010.[30] Mine clearance in Faya region, supported by UNMAS and which started in 2011, ended in May 2012 for lack of funding. Clearance in Tibesti was, though, initiated for the first time at the end of April 2012.[31] Chad has not submitted an Article 7 report since 2010.

Survey in 2011

As noted above, a planned 2009 survey of SHAs did not start on schedule; it began in September 2010, under an UNDP project funded by Japan, and ended on 31 May 2011. The second phase of the survey, which would cover the most affected region of Tibesti, started in May 2012.[32]

Mine clearance in 2011

In May 2012, Chad reported that during the course of Phase 1 of the national survey a total of 1,298 antipersonnel mines and 1,268 antivehicle mines were destroyed from clearance of more than 1km² of mined areas.[33]

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the extension requests granted in 2008 and 2010), Chad is formally required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 January 2014. It is understood, however, that Chad will request additional time to fulfill its Article 5 obligations.

Chad’s 2008 extension request was for an initial 14-month period to enable a new survey of contamination to take place—not including the Tibesti region. As the Analysing Group’s review of that extension request stated, “Chad is unable to provide an accounting of the areas now considered to be no longer dangerous relative to those areas originally suspected of being dangerous.”[34]

At the Ninth Meeting of States Parties, which approved the first request, the ICBL welcomed Chad’s approach to requesting a short amount of time to conduct the necessary surveys to clearly determine the remaining contaminated area. The ICBL cautioned, however, that the Tibesti region will need to be cleared before Chad can declare completion of Article 5 obligations, and the lack of a plan to survey the area would make it hard for Chad to draft a final country-wide clearance plan.

At the June 2010 intersessional Standing Committee meetings, Chad announced that it would be submitting a second, short extension request to enable the survey to be conducted.[35] The ICBL stated its deep disappointment that the UN’s internal processes in managing the funds had prevented the survey from being conducted during the existing extension request, as had been planned.[36] A second extension request was submitted on 20 September 2010, seeking an additional three years to conduct the survey. In granting the request, the Tenth Meeting of States Parties noted that, “as Chad had not complied with the commitment it had made, as recorded by the Ninth Meeting of the States Parties, to garner an understanding of the true remaining extent of the challenge and to develop plans accordingly that precisely project the amount of time that will be required to complete Article 5 implementation, it would appear that Chad does not possess much more knowledge now than it did in 2008 to develop a plan to meet its Article 5 obligations.”[37]

Although survey activities had progressed through June 2011, no concrete plans have been made to survey Tibesti, and the ending of the first phase of the survey of other areas in June 2011 without completing the work and without having a clear date for resumption of survey activities is a matter of obvious regret. Demining operations started in August 2000 but stopped at the end of December 2005 due to lack of funding. There has since been only intermittent clearance of mined areas.

As noted above, in May 2012, Chad pledged to present a new strategic mine action plan to the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties, prior to submitting a new extension request before the end of March 2013.[38]