Contamination and Impact

Ethiopia is contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) resulting from internal and international armed conflicts dating back to 1935.[1]

Mines

The 2004 Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) in 2003–2004 identified 1,492 communities as impacted by mines and ERW in 1,916 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) across more than 2,000km². The Afar, Somali, and Tigray regions accounted for more than 80% of the impacted communities in the country.[2] The Ethiopian Mine Action Office (EMAO) believed that the LIS had overestimated the number both of SHAs and impacted communities, citing a lack of military expertise among the survey teams as the major reason for the overestimation.[3] Subsequent resurvey confirmed 136 SHAs from the LIS and confirmed 60 other hazardous areas that were previously unrecorded, covering a total of 37.87km². Of this area, EMAO had cleared 37.31km² by June 2012; this left 560,000m² to clear.

There was a total of 1,199,636,634m²(1,200km²) remaining to re-survey from the LIS data, most of which is located in the Somali region. EMAO, however, has claimed that only some 5.9km² of this area remains to be cleared. Prior to being disbanded, EMAO was planning to clear about 3km² per year, and conclude clearance operations by the end of 2013.[4] A quality assurance and quality control process will help to ensure the requisite transparency that will allow Ethiopia to declare completion of its Article 5 survey and clearance obligations. It is not known what the Ministry of National Defense, which has taken over responsibility for mine survey and clearance, plans to do.

Ethiopia’s development plans include construction of roads, railroads, power lines, schools and other infrastructure. With the extent of the residual risk unknown but potentially significant, an appropriate mine action capacity will have to remain in place in the ministry.[5] As a result of land release, local residents have gained increased access to drinking water, firewood, and roads. New small roads and bridges were constructed in rural areas, and areas in parts of Somali region have allowed displaced persons and refugees to resettle in the areas confirmed as safe.[6]

Cluster munition remnants

It is not known if the ERW threat includes a residual threat from cluster munition remnants. In 2004, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission concluded that Eritrea had conducted four cluster munition strikes on 5 June 1998 in the vicinity of a school in Ayder, and at the airport surrounding a neighborhood in Mekele town, both in Tigray region.[7] In June 2012, the Permanent Mission of Ethiopia to the UN in Geneva informed Cluster Munition Monitor that cluster munition remnants “are still found in the area” around the elementary school in Ayder.[8]

Other explosive remnants of war

Ethiopia does not report on the number of recorded ERW-contaminated areas, but ERW are reported to be found throughout Ethiopia as a result of five different conflicts. In early 2011, a construction crew leveling land for a new road near Gonder discovered a stockpile of abandoned explosive ordnance in a cave dating back to the Italian occupation in the 1930s. EMAO explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams cleared the area.[9]

Mine Action Program

To address its mine and ERW contamination, in 1995 the Ethiopian government established the Ethiopian demining project as a non-combatant unit of the Ministry of National Defense. After a truce ended the conflict with Eritrea in 2000, the Council of Ministers established the civilian EMAO in February 2001 as an autonomous statutory body responsible for mine clearance and mine risk education.[10]

As of August 2012, EMAO was transferring its assets and operations to the Ministry of National Defense, which will assume responsibility for clearing the remaining mined area.[11] In 2011, the EMAO board decided that the ministry was in a better position to finish clearing the remaining mines because Ethiopia had made sufficient progress in meeting its Mine Ban Treaty obligations and the foreseeable residual problem did not warrant a structure and organization the size of EMAO. It further asserted that a civilian entity such as EMAO had difficulty accessing the unstable Somali region.[12] The ICBL believes that civilian management of mine action is typically more efficient and more transparent than military management. Furthermore, according to Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), the capacity needed to address the residual threat should not be underestimated.[13]

A 2011 GICHD study on mine action programs transitioning to national ownership had concluded that EMAO’s mandate as a mine action program was too limited because it did not include victim assistance and was not even the official focal point for mine action nationally, though it was the face of mine action in Ethiopia at international forums.[14] Despite these limitations, internal evaluations and studies have concluded EMAO was an effective operational entity for mine clearance. External evaluations have highlighted EMAO’s professionalism and approaches to problems as well as the steady progress in meeting its Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 obligations.[15] At its peak, EMAO operated with six demining companies and more than 700 staff. However, as the need for manual deminers gradually diminished, by the end of 2011 there were three demining companies and 350 staff.[16] It is unknown how many demining teams the Ministry of National Defense will deploy.

EMAO, which has been nationally managed from the beginning, developed its operational capacities with technical assistance from NPA, UNDP, and UNICEF. NPA has provided technical support to EMAO since 2005.[17] EMAO developed its own quality management system and deployed quality assurance officers to each demining company to report directly to the director general of EMAO.[18]

On 31 May 2012, NPA ended its direct funding support to EMAO. It also ended its role and support of mine detection dogs (MDDs) at the Entoto Training Centre (ETC) at the end of June 2012.[19] NPA funded 52 EMAO surveys and developed an MDD capacity and has strengthened EMAO’s operational capabilities through the development of a technical survey component of a land release methodology.[20] In April 2012, NPA transferred the MDD capacity to EMAO, which in turn transferred it to the federal police.[21]

NPA also provided funding for the construction of the ETC in Oromia region near Addis Ababa, were the MDDs were sited. It is estimated that donors and NPA contributed €2.3 million (approximately $3.2 million).[22] NPA trained national MDD instructors and puppy activators (trainers), as well as accredited dog handlers. NPA also developed training manuals. In addition to the construction costs, NPA also supported operational costs, maintenance, salaries and administrative costs, as well as all costs related to MDDs.[23]

In 2011, the UNDP program advisor position was not renewed because EMAO considered it unnecessary for the projected two to three years that were thought necessary to clear the remaining mines.

Transition to the Ministry of National Defense

In June 2012, EMAO was scheduled to be closed down and the ministry was due to assume responsibility for clearing the remaining mines.[24] As of late August 2012, however, the transfer from EMAO to the Ministry of National Defense was not complete.[25] No reasons were apparent for the delay.

The Army Combat Engineers had, however, assumed management of the ETC and conducted demining training there in early 2012. On 26 April 2012, NPA transferred 49 surviving MDDs to EMAO and in June 2012 some of the MDD handlers and support staff were transferred to the federal police.[26] The MDD assets are available for quality control but it is unclear how the federal police will use the assets.

Land Release

In 2002–2011, Ethiopia cleared almost 60km², destroying in the process 9,278 antipersonnel mines and 1,266 antivehicle mines,[27] considerably less than the estimate of two million mines frequently used to describe the level of contamination at the beginning of the mine action program.[28] EMAO also canceled or released almost 597km² of land by survey.[29] According to a GICHD study on national ownership, Ethiopia has canceled or released more than 700km² through technical surveys since 2005.[30]

Despite these survey achievements, some areas have not yet been re-surveyed. For example, the 315 SHAs, representing approximately 5.9km², located mostly in the Somali region, remain to be verified.[31] Additionally, as noted above, some 1,200km² of SHAs from the LIS had not been re-surveyed as of August 2012. The Ministry of National Defense has given no indication of whether it will re-survey this area.[32]

Summary of mine clearance in 2002–2011[33]

Mine clearance in 2011

In 2011 through September, EMAO reportedly cleared 0.84km² of mined area and found 508 antipersonnel mines, 57 antivehicle mines, and 1,087 items of unexploded ordnance (UXO).[34] EMAO ended clearance operations in September 2011.[35]

As of August, Ethiopia had not reported any mine clearance for the year 2012.[36] Since the transition of the mine action program to the Ministry of National Defense, there has been no information on mine action activities; it is not clear how this information would be requested or released because the person in charge in not known.

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, Ethiopia is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 June 2015.

In June 2010, at the intersessional Standing Committee meetings, Ethiopia said it would clear all mines by 2013, two years ahead of its deadline, if sufficient funding were available.[37] In December 2010, at the Tenth Meeting of States Parties, Ethiopia repeated this goal.[38] In May 2012, EMAO reported it needed $10 million to clear the remaining mined area; but the fact that mine action was moving to the Ministry of National Defense[39] has impeded funding because donors that support humanitarian demining through their foreign aid programs are generally constrained from providing funds to the army.

Quality management

EMAO was responsible for all quality management of demining operations.[40] The Ministry of National Defense assumed this responsibility in June 2012.

Risk Education

Risk education (RE) in Ethiopia has been carried out by different organizations. UNICEF, EMAO, the Rehabilitation and Development Organization (RADO), the Office of Rehabilitation and Social Affairs in Tigray, and the regional administrations of Afar, Somali, and Tigray have either coordinated and/or conducted RE in recent years.[41] Only EMAO conducted RE in conjunction with demining.[42]

In 2011, more than 26,000 people received RE in the Tigre, Somali and Dire Dawa regions.[43]