Contamination and Impact

As a result of armed conflicts dating back to 1963, Guinea-Bissau is contaminated by mines (both antipersonnel and antivehicle) and explosive remnants of war (ERW). Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) conducted a national mine and ERW survey in Guinea-Bissau from September 2010 to June 2011. At the end of the survey, 17 hazardous areas remained to be cleared: 11 contain mines and six contain ERW.[1]

Mines

As of June 2011, a total of 11 mined areas identified by NPA during survey in 2010–2011 remained to be released across six regions (Bafatá, Bolama, Cacheu, Oio, Quinara, and Tombali), covering an estimated 250,539m².[2] In addition, parts of two mined areas identified during an earlier impact survey remained to be released across two regions (Cacheu and Tombali), covering an estimated area of 29,451m².[3] 

Cluster munition remnants

It is not known to what extent Guinea-Bissau is still contaminated with cluster munition remnants. The last known unexploded submunitions were said to have been destroyed by Cleared Ground Demining (CGD) in August 2008,[4] although Guinea-Bissau submitted a Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in 2009 which referred to “some clusters” at the Paiol da Bra ammunition storage area (ASA).[5] Subsequently, CGD reported clearing 73 PTAB 2.5M submunitions at Paiol da Bra in 2009.[6]

In June 2010, the general director of the National Mine Action Coordination Center (Centro Nacional de Coordenção da Accão Anti-Minas, CAAMI) acknowledged the existence of a cluster munition problem, but stated that survey was needed to identify its extent.[7] During 2010, CGD found and destroyed six unexploded PTAB 2.5M submunitions during subsurface clearance at Paiol da Bra.[8] In March 2011, NPA stated that no unexploded submunitions had been found during their survey of explosive contamination in Guinea-Bissau, nor did they expect to find any, although it is believed that cluster munition stockpiles may still exist.[9]

Other explosive remnants of war

The 2007–2008 impact survey found five battle areas (not including the ASA at Paiol da Bra) covering an estimated 0.93km².[10] The survey was not able to visit all suspected hazardous areas because of security or access problems.[11] According to CAAMI, other areas would be added to the list once additional survey had been conducted.[12] The NPA survey found six areas containing ERW across three regions (Bafatá, Oio, and Quinara), covering an estimated 107,254m². There are also 42 areas containing scattered ERW.[13]

The capital, Bissau, was contaminated by large quantities of ERW around the Paiol de Bra ASA, although clearance by CGD was reportedly completed on 25 May 2010.[14]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

CAAMI, which was established in 2001, coordinates mine action operations. It was brought under the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense at the end of 2009.[15] A new UNDP chief technical advisor started work in May 2009 after a gap of more than one year. Since his arrival, program management is said to have significantly improved.[16]

NPA was requested by CAAMI to assist with capacity-building and demining as well as to conduct a survey of mine/ERW contamination. It began operations in the summer of 2010.

Land Release

As noted above, land release in 2010 included cancelation of two suspected mined areas and release through technical survey of two further mined areas.

Five-year summary of land release[17]

Survey in 2010

NPA conducted both non-technical and technical survey in 2010.[18]

Mine clearance in 2010

The total of mined area cleared in 2010 has not been reported separately from battle area clearance (BAC), but included the destruction of 390 antipersonnel mines and five antivehicle mines.[19] Demining is still primarily manual in Guinea-Bissau, which makes clearance slow and difficult.[20] As of the end of 2010, mine clearance capacity consisted of HUMAID’s 55 deminers and LUTCAM’s 44 deminers, the same as in 2009.[21] NPA destroyed two antipersonnel mines during technical survey operations in 2010.[22] It was planning to conduct mine clearance from July 2011.[23]

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the two-month extension request granted in 2010), Guinea-Bissau is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 January 2012.

In June 2010, CAAMI’s director informed the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, Mine Risk Education and Mine Action Technologies that Guinea-Bissau would need to request an extension to its Article 5 deadline “due to national capacity reduction and reporting of new affected areas in a considerable number.”[24] The Article 7 report had indicated that the request would be presented to the June 2010 intersessional Standing Committee meetings but this did not occur.[25]

On 8 September 2010, Guinea-Bissau submitted a request for a two-month extension to its Article 5 deadline. In granting the request, the Tenth Meeting of States Parties stated that, given that a financial shortfall could affect the realization of Guinea-Bissau’s plan, resource mobilization could be greatly aided if Guinea-Bissau demonstrated greater national ownership by making a national financial investment into Article 5 implementation. The Meeting further noted that while Guinea-Bissau has been slow to adopt efficient land release practices and that while its progress to date has been modest, Guinea-Bissau was making a commitment through its extension request to more efficiently and expediently proceed with Article 5 implementation.[26]

Indeed, clearance of mined areas has been extremely slow in Guinea-Bissau, with only about 1.3km² of mined areas cleared in the last five years, and data, especially for 2009, does not appear to be reliable. Under Action Point 17 of the Cartagena Action Plan, adopted by the Second Review Conference, States Parties undertake to: “Provide annually, in accordance with Article 7, precise information on the number, location and size of mined areas, anticipated particular technical or operational challenges, plans to clear or otherwise release these areas and information on the areas already released, disaggregated by release through clearance, technical survey and non-technical survey.” 

NPA reported in March 2011 that it expected clearance of mined areas to be completed before the end of the year.[27]

Clearance of cluster munition contaminated areas in 2010

In 2010, CGD cleared six unexploded PTAB 2.5M submunitions during subsurface clearance at the Paiol da Bra ASA.[28] CGD reported clearing 73 unexploded PTAB 2.5M submunitions at the Paiol da Bra ASA in 2009.[29]

Battle area clearance and explosive ordnance disposal in 2010[30]

The total of battle area cleared in 2010 has not been reported separately from mined area clearance, but included the destruction of 12,455 items of unexploded ordnance and 381 fuzes.[31] As of 1 August 2011, Guinea-Bissau had not submitted its initial Article 10 transparency report under Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Protocol V on explosive remnants of war, due on 5 August 2009.

It is not clear to what extent Guinea-Bissau’s reported figures include CGD’s BAC and explosive ordnance disposal, since CGD alone reported to the Monitor the destruction of a total of 13,543 ERW[32] (although the total includes an unspecified number of weapons). To conduct demolitions, the Guinea-Bissau military allows CGD to have antivehicle mines as donor charges. For 2010, it was provided with 96 C3A and two TM48 antivehicle mines.[33]

Community liaison

Community liaison capacity has so far been weak in Guinea-Bissau. CAAMI’s risk education (RE) department has liaison personnel in the regions that update CAAMI from time to time with information on suspected areas, the need for RE interventions, and new incidents.[34]

Community liaison was, though, said to be an important aspect of CGD’s roving teams’ activities, with one liaison officer in each team. Community meetings are often held to explain the team’s activities.[35]

Quality management

In early 2007, it was reported that new national mine action standards (NMAS) were being drafted. In 2010, a Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining mission was conducted in order to assist Guinea-Bissau with the creation of NMAS.[36]

CAAMI quality assurance/quality control capacity is located inside its operations department. Visits are said to be conducted regularly to all clearance sites, with priority given to the beginning and end of each task.[37]

Safety of demining personnel

No injuries to demining personnel were recorded in 2009 or 2010.[38]