Policy

The Republic of Angola signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

In September 2013, Angola informed States Parties that its ratification process “is already at a very advanced stage” and “being carefully carried out by all actors, due to the little knowledge the Angolan Authorities have on the dimension of the problem related to Cluster Bombs.”[1] At that time an official informed the CMC that the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of External Relations had completed preparation of the ratification package that will require cabinet and then parliamentary approval. He also said the government has established a special committee to tackle Angola’s backlog of treaty ratifications.[2]

Since 2009, Angolan officials have promised that the government will ratify soon, but there has been little measurable progress towards this objective.[3] Previously, in May 2013, a government representative informed the CMC that the question of ratification had been referred to the Ministry of Defence for further consideration.[4] In 2011, Angolan officials indicated that the ratification package was being prepared for submission to the Council of Ministers.[5] Angola participated extensively in the Oslo Process and, while it did not attend the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008, it signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo in December 2008.[6]

Despite the lack of ratification, Angola has continued to participate in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has attended every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties held in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Angola has participated in all intersessional meetings of the convention held in Geneva, including in April 2014.[7] Angola attended a regional conference on universalization of the convention held in Lomé, Togo in May 2013, where it endorsed the Lomé Strategy on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions committing to take specific and concerted actions to ratify the convention at the earliest opportunity.[8]

In September 2013, Angola’s Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Manuel Augusto, told States Parties that the Convention on Cluster Munitions “represents a remarkable result of multilateralism in disarmament, based on a constructive cooperation between government and non-government actors and on the relationship between humanitarian and human rights.”[9]

Angola is not known to have condemned the Syrian government’s use of cluster munitions.

Angola is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, and use

Angola is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions.

Cluster munitions were used in the past in Angola, but it is unclear when or by whom. An Intersectoral Commission on Demining and Humanitarian Assistance (Comissão Nacional Intersectorial de Desminagem e Assistência Humanitária, CNIDAH) official who had seen cluster munitions remnants in Huambo province near Caala and Bailundo, probably from the heavy fighting during 1998–1999, said he believed that the Angolan Armed Forces used cluster munitions because only they used aircraft during this conflict, not the rebel UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) forces.[10]

Stockpiling and destruction

The government has not made an official determination and public announcement that all stocks have been identified and destroyed.

In June 2010, a CNIDAH official said that Angola had destroyed its stockpile of cluster munitions between 2003 and 2010 in a joint initiative of the government and HALO Trust, and that the armed forces no longer held any stocks.[11] In addition, HALO’s weapons and ammunition disposal teams, which operate in all 18 provinces destroying weapons caches belonging to the police, army, navy, and air force, found and destroyed 51 abandoned explosive submunitions in military warehouses.[12] The location of these warehouses has not been reported.

In the past, Jane’s Information Group noted that KMGU dispensers that deploy submunitions were in service for Angolan aircraft.[13] Deminers operating in Angola have documented the presence of casings of RBK 250-275 cluster bombs among abandoned ammunition.[14] It is likely the KMGU and RBK were of Soviet origin.

Angola is also reported to possess BM-21 Grad and RM-70 122mm surface-to-surface rocket launchers, but it is not known if these include ammunition with submunition payloads.[15]