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Eritrea
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The State of Eritrea has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but has given indications of support for many years.
In April 2012, a government official informed the CMC that the government has established a committee to study the ban convention and provide recommendations on accession.[1] Previously, in 2010, Eritrea stated that it supports the convention and sees benefits in joining.[2]
In 2008, Eritrea said that, as a contaminated state, it understood the problems caused by cluster munitions and supported a prohibition on the weapon.[3]
Eritrea did not participate in the international meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but it attended the two Africa regional meetings, where it supported a comprehensive ban.[4] Eritrea has continued to participate in meetings of the convention. It attended a regional conference on cluster munitions in Pretoria, South Africa in March 2010. It participated as an observer in the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010 and the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut in September 2011, but did not make any statements at either meeting.
Eritrea attended the Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Ghana in May 2012, where it endorsed the Accra Universalization Action Plan, which among other actions, encourages states not party to the convention to “take all necessary steps” to accede by the convention's Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012. Eritrea did not make any statements, but its delegate expressed support for the ban convention in a meeting with CMC representatives.
Eritrea is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Eritrea is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
In October 2010, Eritrea confirmed that it has not produced cluster munitions.[5] Eritrean and Ethiopian forces both used cluster munitions during their 1998–2000 border war.[6] Although Ethiopia has denied it, there is ample evidence that it attacked several parts of Eritrea with cluster munitions.
Eritrean aircraft attacked the Mekele airport in Ethiopia with cluster bombs in 1998.[7] In April 2009, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission in The Hague awarded Ethiopia $2.5 million “in respect of deaths and injuries, medical expenses and property damage resulting from the dropping of cluster bombs in the vicinity of the Ayder School in Mekele.”[8]
Eritrea has denied stockpiling cluster munitions.[9] Eritrea reportedly inherited Chilean-manufactured CB-500 cluster bombs when it achieved independence from Ethiopia.[10] According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, it also possesses Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[11]
[1] CMC meeting with Ghebremedhin-Mehari Tesfamichael, Finance and Administrative Officer, Eritrean Mission to the UN in Geneva, Geneva, 18 April 2012. Notes by the CMC.
[2] CMC meeting with Elsa Haile, Director, Department of International and Regional Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, New York, 20 October 2010. Notes by the CMC; and Statement of Eritrea, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 9 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.
[3] CMC, “Report on the Kampala Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” September 2008.
[4] For details on Eritrea’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. 199.
[5] CMC meeting with Haile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, New York, 20 October 2010. Notes by the CMC.
[6] The UN Mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia’s Mine Action Coordination Center (UNMEE MACC) reported that in 2007, unexploded PTAB 2.5 and BL755 submunitions were found in Eritrea, see UNMEE MACC, “Annual Report 2008,” undated draft, p. 1, provided by email from Anthony Blythen, Programme Officer, UN Mine Action Service, 7 April 2009. Additionally, a UN EOD team in the area of Melhadega in Eritrea identified and destroyed a dud M20G DPICM submunition of Greek origin in October 2004, but it is not known who used the weapon, see UNMEE MACC, “Weekly Update,” Asmara, 4 October 2004, p. 4.
[7] Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission, Partial Award—Central Front—Ethiopia’s Claim 2 between The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the State of Eritrea, The Hague, 28 April 2004, p. 24.
[8] Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission, “Ethiopia’s Damages Claims Between The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia And The State of Eritrea,” The Hague, 17 August 2009, http://bit.ly/MGwdlH.
[9] CMC meeting with Haile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, New York, 20 October 2010. Notes by the CMC.
[10] Rae McGrath, Cluster Bombs: The Military Effectiveness and Impact on Civilians of Cluster Munitions (London: Landmine Action, 2000), p. 38.
[11] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 423.
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