Contamination and Impact

The Republic of Chad is contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) resulting from the 1973 Libyan invasion and 30 years of internal conflict, but the precise extent of this contamination still remains to be quantified.[1]

The mine action program since 2008 has suffered from a lack of international funding, weak government oversight, and mismanagement within the National Demining Center (Centre National de Deminage, CND) resulting in no demining until October 2012 when the European Union provided funding to the Mines Advisory Group (MAG).[2]

Landmines and ERW are obstacles to safe access to housing, roads, pastures, water points, and mining, particularly in the north in the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region.[3] The Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region is in northern Chad in the Sahara Desert and extends into the Sahel.[4]

Mines

Earlier estimates of 670km² or more of suspected hazardous areas outside the northern Tibesti region, identified as a result of a 1999–2001 Landmine Impact Survey[5] and subsequent survey and clearance, have since been revised. The MAG survey completed in 2012 and funded by Japan and UNDP, which included part of the Tibesti region, identified 110 confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) covering 58km² in three regions in northern Chad. However, more contaminated area could be identified in the Tibesti region bordering Libya and the Moyen Chari region in the south on the border with the Central African Republic, as both areas need further surveys.[6]

Contaminated mined area as of March 2013[7]

Cluster munition remnants

Cluster munition remnants have been found in Chad. 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.[8] MAG found unexploded Soviet antitank PETAB-1.5 submunitions during survey in an area close to Faya Largeau.[9] 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).[10]

At the signing conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, the representative of Chad spoke of “vast swathes of territory” contaminated with “mines and UXO [unexploded ordnance] (munitions and submunitions).”[11] However, since then no large amounts of cluster submunitions have been found.

Explosive Remnants of War

The MAG survey also identified 181 UXO sites measuring 3.1km² in nine regions, of which almost 70% are located in the three northern regions where the remaining mined area is located.

Number and area of ERW sites as of March 2013[12]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

The Steering Committee of the 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 a Steering Committee. In 2012, management problems at the CND were identified resulting in the dismissal of the Director and firing of hundreds of employees. CND reduced its personnel from 720 to 320.[13] CND demining operations have also been plagued with poor equipment and a lack of funding.[14]

In May 2013, the government of Chad approved a new strategic mine action plan for 2013–2017.[15]

In 2012, with support from UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), the United States military trained 60 deminers from CND.[16] UNMAS suspended assistance to Chad in 2012 due to a lack of funding.[17]

The UNDP technical advisor to Chad left his post at the end of May 2013 when his contract expired.[18] As of September 2013, no replacement has been announced, and it was uncertain if the government of Chad and UNDP planned to recruit an international technical advisor.

Land Release

Release of mined areas has fallen significantly in recent years in Chad, with battle area clearance (BAC) continuing intermittently. MAG ceased clearance operations in 2009 but deployed again for survey and clearance in June 2010.[19] Mine clearance in the Faya region supported by UNMAS, which started in 2011, ended in May 2012 for lack of funding. Clearance in Tibesti, though, started at the end of April 2012.[20] Chad has not submitted an Article 7 report since 2010.

Survey in 2012

In March 2013, MAG reported it had completed technical and non-technical surveys in the northern and eastern parts of Chad. MAG marked 49.88km² of contaminated area and cleared 837,173m² of dangerous areas while destroying 238 antipersonnel/antitank mines and 8,813 UXO. MAG also identified 55 new dangerous areas, of which they cleared 35.[21]

Mine clearance

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 and much of it poorly documented. In 2009, with funding from Libya CND found 22 antipersonnel and nine antivehicle mines in Ounianga Kebbir in Ennedi over a 4km2 area. In early 2010, the Chadian government funded demining operations in Fada, also in the Ennedi region. Additionally, in 2009–2010 the CND conducted clearance (with funding from Libya according to CND) in Wadi Doum, the site of a Libyan air base that was bombed by the France in 1986.[22] Reportedly there is a mined area 47km long in Wadi Doum.[23] From July 2012 to May 2013, MAG removed and destroyed 1,419 mines and UXO while clearing 17,390m2 of mined area and conducting BAC on 196,576m2.[24]

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. On 2 May 2013, Chad submitted a third Extension Request asking for an additional five years to 2019.

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.”[25]

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.

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.”[26]

In 2012, the survey was completed, and on 2 May 2013 Chad submitted a third Extension Request and asked for an additional five years until 2019. [27]

Compliance with Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Under Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Chad is required to destroy all cluster munition remnants in areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible but not later than 1 September 2022.