Contamination and Impact

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is affected by mines—both antivehicle and antipersonnel—although the impact of the mine threat is believed to be less than that from explosive remnants of war (ERW). Contamination from both mines and ERW is said to exist across the territory, but is predominantly found in the regions in the east, north, and part of the south. The planned completion of a nationwide General Mine Action Survey (GMAS), which was initiated in May 2009 and which incorporated limited technical survey and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) capacities, was postponed to the end of 2012.[1]

In March 2011, the UN Mine Action Coordination Center, DRC (UNMACC) reported that the provinces of Equateur, Katanga, Province Orientale, and South Kivu were the most affected.[2] The DRC’s 2009 Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report also included Maniema in a list of the most affected provinces.[3] In November 2008, the UN also stated that “more and more dangerous areas are being reported in Kasai Oriental and Kasai Occidental.”[4]

Mines

In November 2009, the UN reported that of the 884 suspected mined areas identified by the mine action program, 818 remained to be tackled.[5] In March 2011, UNMACC stated that 82 mined areas had been identified in survey operations and 692 areas had been reclassified from suspected mined areas to battle areas.[6] In June 2011 at the intersessional Standing Committee meetings, the DRC stated that of the 82 mined areas, 12 were confirmed while the other 70 were suspected of being contaminated with mines.[7] Contamination covered an estimated 14km² of territory, although of this total some 8km² was located around Kisangani airport.[8]

In May 2012, the DRC reported that 10 of the 12 CHAs had been cleared, covering 340,000m². However, since its extension had been granted a further 10 suspected hazardous areas had been identified during survey work while other areas still required general survey.[9]

Cluster munition remnants

Cluster munition remnants have been found in the provinces of Equateur, Katanga, Maniema, and Province Orientale. Contamination is also suspected in North Kivu province.[10] In April 2011, UNMACC reported 18 sites in which submunitions had been found, most in Katanga province.[11] The scale of residual contamination from unexploded submunitions has not, however, yet been quantified.

According to UNMACC, no cluster munition remnants were found in 2010.[12] However, Mines Advisory Group (MAG) reported to the Monitor that it cleared eight BLU 63 submunitions while conducting survey operations in Bolomba territory, Equateur province in 2010 “which identified a large area requiring battle area clearance [BAC].”[13] In 2009, DanChurchAid (DCA) destroyed four unexploded submunitions in Manono and a fifth in Kabalo.[14] Handicap International (HI) destroyed a total of 10 PM-1 submunitions in 2009.[15]

Other explosive remnants of war

Other ERW contamination is from unexploded ordnance (UXO) as well as from significant quantities of abandoned explosive ordnance. The precise extent of contamination is unknown, although as of March 2011 UNMACC had recorded 1,515 ERW-affected areas. UNMACC has noted that most of the ammunition caches are cleared as they are encountered, for example by GMAS teams, or they are cleared if there are specific requests by the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), by development agencies, or by NGOs. It believes that the 1,515 ERW-affected areas include a large number of spot EOD tasks.[16] The Development Initiative (TDI) reports that most of the UXO they have found has been mortar rounds or grenades, and occasionally locally produced aircraft bombs.[17]

Ongoing conflict in the DRC has resulted in new contamination although the extent was not known. Combat in 2012 between the armed forces and M23, a non-state armed group, was likely to have added further contamination.

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

The government of the DRC is in the process of asserting full national ownership over the mine action program. Plans for a National Mine Action Commission and Congolese Centre for Mine Action have still to come to fruition, although a focal point has been mandated within the government.[18] On 9 July 2011, long-awaited national mine action legislation was signed into law by the DRC president.[19] DRC’s strategic plan for 2012–2016 sets as an objective clearance of all areas contaminated by antipersonnel mines or unexploded submunitions by the end of 2016.[20]

Mine action operations in the DRC are currently coordinated by UNMACC, established in 2002, and managed by the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS). UNMACC is part of the MONUSCO peacekeeping mission.[21] According to its mandate as set out in UN Security Council Resolution 1925, UNMACC works to strengthen national mine action capacities and support reconstruction through road and infrastructure clearance.[22] UNMACC maintains de facto responsibility for planning, managing, and monitoring all mine action activities on behalf of the government.

In 2010, UNMACC was deployed in Kinshasa (country office) and three regional offices: Kisangani, Goma, and Kananga (which opened in June 2010 following closure of the Lubumbashi office). The UNMACC operations department, previously working from Kinshasa, moved to Goma in September 2010 and as of March 2011 was co-located in the regional office.[23]

UNMACC operates under a three-year strategy covering 2010–2012. The strategy includes the following components: capacity development of the Congolese Centre for Mine Action; a “Concept of Operations” (a document setting out the UN’s approach to mine action in the country); mine/ERW risk education (RE); and victim assistance.[24] A “validation” workshop for a new national mine action strategy was held at the beginning of August 2011.[25]

In 2010, HI Belgium (HI-B) handed over its demining program to HI France (HI-F).[26] In April 2011, the United States (US) reported that it had conducted eight missions to train DRC Armed Forces in mine and ERW clearance.[27] Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) set up a mine action program in 2011 and initiated demining operations in 2012 in Bas Congo.[28]

Land Release

Land release decreased significantly in 2010 after a marked increase in 2009 compared to earlier years.[29] Detailed figures have not been reported for 2011. DRC’s latest Article 7 report claims only five antipersonnel mines were destroyed during the year.[30]

Five-year summary of land release

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the 26-month extension request granted in 2011), the DRC is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 January 2015.

In June 2010, the UN had noted, “It will be difficult for DRC to meet the 2012 deadline clearance deadline. UNMACC DRC is accompanying DRC government in the preparation of the extension request.” In March 2011, DRC submitted a request to extend its Article 5 deadline by four years.[31] The extension request largely blamed poor survey by demining operators for the failure to meet its deadline, although poor management and insufficient national ownership of the program are also considered major factors. In June 2011, however, at the Standing Committee meetings, the DRC informed the States Parties that it was seeking only an interim two-year extension to its deadline and that it would present a definitive extension request in 2014.[32] It ultimately requested a 26-month extension.

In the past five years, demining organizations have cleared almost 5km² of mined and battle areas, the majority of which is likely to be BAC. Indeed, targeted mine clearance appears to have been very slow, with a total of 1.28km² reported in the Extension Request since 2001 and only one mined area reported as having been cleared during 2010 (although, as set out above, data reported separately to the Monitor suggests that three mined areas were cleared during the year).[33] A total of 133 mined areas have reportedly been cleared since 2001.[34]