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Eritrea
Casualties and Victim Assistance
Casualties Overview
|
All known casualties by end 2011 |
5,268 mine/ERW casualties (2,515 killed; 2,753 injured) |
|
Casualties in 2010 |
2011: 21 (2010: 42) |
|
2011 casualties by outcome |
2 killed; 19 injured (2010: 6 killed; 36 injured) |
|
2011 casualties by device type |
21 ERW |
The Eritrean Demining Authority (EDA) identified 21 explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties in 2011. This represented the lowest number of annual casualties since Monitor reporting began in 1999 and a decrease of half from the 42 casualties in 2010, which included 23 ERW casualties and 19 landmine casualties. No landmine casualties were reported for 2011. Children (19 total: 15 boys, four girls) continued to be the majority of casualties at 90%. Two casualties were adults: one man and one woman.[1] Unexploded submunitions were not differentiated from other types of ERW in casualty data.
The total known number of mine/ERW casualties in Eritrea is 5,268 (2,515 people killed and another people 2,753 injured).[2] The EDA recorded 771 casualties (199 killed; 572 injured) between 2000 and the end of 2011, including 334 from 2005–2011 (79 killed; 255 injured).[3] The Eritrea Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) remains the most extensive source of cumulative casualty data, identifying 4,934 mine/ERW casualties up to June 2004 (2,436 killed; 2,498 injured).[4] Previous estimates of tens of thousands of mine casualties in Eritrea in total remained unconfirmed.[5] However the LIS data collection was limited to communities that reported mine contamination.[6] Therefore, it is likely that the LIS does not record veterans injured and killed by mines from urban localities.
At least 163 casualties during cluster munition strikes in Eritrea have been reported. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that there were about 160 casualties (approximately 50 killed and 110 injured) during the use of cluster munitions in 1990.[7] At least three casualties during the use of cluster munitions in 2000 were also reported.[8] In addition, incomplete casualty data indicated that at least nine casualties from cluster munitions remnants were reported in Eritrea after the year 2000.[9]
Victim Assistance
At least 2,753 mine/ERW survivors have been reported in Eritrea.[10]
Victim assistance since 1999
The Ministry of Labor and Human Welfare (MoLHW) had the central role in coordinating assistance for persons with disabilities including mine/ERW survivors and started developing a national data collection system on persons with disabilities in 2002. Basic physical rehabilitation, psychosocial services and economic reintegration have been provided through a national community-based rehabilitation (CBR) network, which the MoLHW started in 1995 and gradually expanded by 2008 to include the areas most affected by mine/ERW. The CBR network reached full national coverage by 2009; three years earlier than scheduled (2012). NGO and ICRC programs and support for victim assistance and disabled persons began to lessen in 2003 and decreased significantly between 2005 and 2009. This left the state health system and CBR network, which received support from UNDP and UNICEF respectively until 2011, as the sole providers of victim assistance together with the national disabled veterans’ association.
Victim Assistance in 2011
In 2011, victim assistance activities were scaled back significantly with the completion of UNDP support. Services for persons with disabilities, including disabled veterans, continued to be provided through the Ministry of Health, the MoLHW and the disabled veterans’ organization.
Assessing victim assistance needs
In early 2011, plans to relocate MoLHW premises had stalled the finalization of the national database of persons with disabilities started under the 2002 Survey of People with Disabilities in Eritrea.[11] The database was intended to provide the basis of all future planning and development for all people with disabilities in Eritrea, including mine survivors.[12] In 2010, the EDA and Ministry of Health, supported by UNICEF, had agreed to work towards data sharing through the national database being established by MoLHW.[13]
Victim assistance coordination[14]
|
Government coordinating body/focal point |
MoLHW: Coordination and implementation of services for mine/ERW survivors |
|
Coordinating mechanisms |
None |
|
Plan |
None |
The MoLHW is responsible for coordination of services for all people with disabilities, including mine survivors.[15] There was no National Landmine Victim Assistance Project Annual Work Plan for 2011 as there had been in past years. However, Eritrea reported in its Article 5 Extension Request of August 2011 that it has a short-term national mine action strategic plan which includes an objective to establish a victim support system that will provide effective assistance to the large group of existing victims and serve new requirements. Eritrea reported that the MoLHW was conducting activities in cooperation with the EDA to complete the objective over five years.[16]
The National Health Policy and the Health Sector Strategic Development Plan for 2012 to 2016 recognize rehabilitative care as one of the four pillars of health care.[17]
It was not reported if mine/ERW survivors were included in planning and coordination or implementation victim assistance of services.
Service accessibility and effectiveness
Victim assistance activities[18]
|
Name of organization |
Type of organization |
Type of activity |
Changes in quality/coverage of service in 2011 |
|
Department of Social Affairs of the MoLHW |
Government |
CBR: physical rehabilitation and other services for persons with disabilities such as social inclusion and vocational training; managing the three orthopedic workshops in the country |
Ongoing |
|
Ministry of Health |
Government |
Medical treatment, physiotherapy and psychological support |
Ongoing |
|
Eritrean National War-Disabled Veterans Association (ENWVA) |
National organization |
Services including mobility devices, loans, and small business opportunities, counseling, and workshops |
Ongoing |
|
UNDP |
International organization |
Support to CBR for persons with disabilities, including physical rehabilitation, medical services, referrals, orthopedic services, and vocational training |
Mine action program ended in July 2011 |
|
UNICEF |
International organization |
Support to children with disabilities in remote rural communities by providing donkeys as transportation to attend school in collaboration with MoLHW |
Victim assistance program ended in 2011 |
Services for persons with disabilities, including disabled veterans, continued to be provided through the Ministry of Health, through the CBR program of the MoLHW, and through ENWVA.
The MoLHW continued to manage three prosthetic centers which provided prostheses for free or sold them to people with disabilities at a nominal price.[19] The Ministry of Health focused on improving physical rehabilitation.[20]
The UNDP mine action capacity building program which was restarted in 2007 came to an end in June 2011, as planned.[21] Also discontinued was the UNDP capacity-building project for the MoLHW’s CBR program, linked to the mine action program and which included support for rehabilitation assistance and economic inclusion services for mine/ERW survivors and other persons with disabilities. Few activities were undertaken with UNDP support in 2011, but some training in data management was provided until mid-2011.[22]
The government dedicated substantial resources to the support and training of the thousands of men and women with physical disabilities resulting from war and conflict. The CBR program of the MoLHW operated in 51 of the 55 sub-regions[23] of Eritrea. As part of the CBR program, a revolving fund for a loan scheme for persons with disabilities was established in all sub-regions. On average, over 1,000 families of landmine casualties and other persons with disabilities benefitted from the revolving fund every year.[24] The ENWVA also provided employment and economic inclusion opportunities, including specific services for female war veterans with disabilities. [25]
Legislation in Eritrea prohibited discrimination against persons with disabilities in employment, education, or in the provision of other state services. There were no laws mandating access to buildings for persons with disabilities. However, many new buildings were built to be accessible.[26]
As of 1 June 2012, Eritrea had not signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
[1] Email from Habtom Seghid, Deputy General Manager, EDA, 30 March 2012; and interview with Habtom Seghid, EDA, 25 May 2012.
[2] The total includes the casualties from the LIS to June 2004 and casualties recorded by the EDA for 2005–2010.
[3] Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline Extension Request (revised), August 2011, p. 11; and Email from Habtom Seghid, Deputy General Manager, EDA, 30 March 2012; and interview with Habtom Seghid, EDA, 25 May 2012.
[4] ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2005: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2005), www.the-monitor.org.
[5] A disability study report in 2008 indicated that the total number of persons with disabilities was 75,212. The number of mine/ERW survivors was not reported. Email from Gbemi Akinboyo, Chief, Child Protection, UNICEF, 14 September 2009. In 2006, the MoLHW reported that there were 84,000 mine survivors in Eritrea of a total of 150,000 persons with disabilities. ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2006: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, July 2006), www.the-monitor.org.
[6] Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline Extension Request, 31 March 2011, p. 11.
[7] On 22 April 1990, two cluster munitions were reported to have been used in an overcrowded street in the center of the port town of Massawa. HRW, Africa Watch “Ethiopia, ‘Mengistu has Decided to Burn Us like Wood,’ Bombing of Civilians and Civilian Targets by the Air Force,” News from Africa Watch, 24 July 1990, p. 4.
[8] Handicap International (HI), Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster Munitions (Brussels: HI: November 2006), p. 18.
[9] HI, Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities (Brussels: HI, May 2007), p. 50.
[10] Survey Action Center, “Landmine Impact Survey, Eritrea, Final Report,” May 2005, pp. 21 & 25–27; Article 5 deadline Extension Request, 31 March 2011, p. 11.
[11] Email from Eyob Ghezai, Programme Specialist, UNDP, 1 April 2011.
[12] Article 5 Deadline Extension Request, 31 March 2011, p. 23.
[13] Email from Kutloano Leshomo, Communication and Donor Relations Specialist, UNICEF, 26 June 2010; email from Eyob Ghezai, UNDP, 27 May 2010; and email from Techeste Ahderom, Senior Technical Advisor on Transition and Early Recovery, UNDP, 6 July 2010.
[14] Email from Kutloano Leshomo, UNICEF, 26 June 2010.
[15] UN, “2011 Portfolio of Mine Action Projects,” New York, March 2011, p. 155.
[16] Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 Extension Request (revised), August 2011, pp. 11-12.
[17] Statement of Eritrea, Mine Ban Treaty, Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-economic Reintegration, Geneva, 24 May 2012.
[18] Statement of Eritrea, Mine Ban Treaty, Eleventh Meeting of States Parties, Phnom Penh, 29 November 2012; email from Michael Tewoldemedhin, Programme Analyst, UNDP, 2 April 2012; and email from UNICEF-Eritrea, 29 July 2011.
[19] “Empowering the disabled through orthopedic-appliances,” Shabait (Asmara), 3 June 2011, www.shabait.com/articles/nation-building/5870-empowering-the-disabled-through-orthopedic-appliances; and “Artificial limb plant helping the disabled become productive,” Shabait (Asmara) 6 June 2011, www.shabait.com/news/local-news/5900-adi-guaedad-artificial-limb-plant-helping-the-disabled-become-productive-.
[20] Interview with Mismay Ghebrehiwet Abay, Adviser to the Minster of Health, Ministry of Health, in Geneva, 25 May 2012.
[21] UNDP-Eritrea, “Mine Action Capacity Building Programme”, www.er.undp.org/recovery/MA.html.
[22] Email from Michael Tewoldemedhin, UNDP, 2 April 2012.
[23] In Eritrea these sub-regions are referred to as sub-“zobas.”
[24] Statement of Eritrea, Mine Ban Treaty Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-economic Reintegration, Geneva, 24 May 2012; and “Credit program plays vital role in improving living standard of needy citizens,” Shabait (Asmara), 2 November 2011, www.shabait.com/news/local-news/7443-credit-program-plays-vital-role-in-improving-living-standard-of-needy-citizens.
[25] “ENWVA assesses work accomplishment,” Eritrean Center for Strategic Studies, (Asmara), 21 January 2011, ecss-online.com; and “ENWVA extends sewing machine to 30 women disabled veterans,” Shabait (Asmara), 7 August 2010, www.shabait.com.
[26] US Department of State, “2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Eritrea,” Washington, DC, 24 May 2012; and US Department of State, “2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Eritrea,” Washington, DC, 8 April 2011.
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