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Nigeria
Mine Ban Policy
Mine ban policy overview
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Mine Ban Treaty status |
State Party |
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National implementation measures |
Process ongoing since 2004 |
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Transparency reporting |
No report submitted for calendar year 2012 |
The Federal Republic of Nigeria acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 27 September 2001, and the treaty entered into force on 1 March 2002.
Nigeria has stated since 2004 that it is in the process of enacting national legislation to implement the treaty. In its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report submitted in 2012, Nigeria again stated, “Domestication of MBT [Mine Ban Treaty] is in progress,” as it had also noted in its 2010 and 2009 reports.[1]
The exact status of national legislation is not known. In September 2013, the Monitor was informed that a committee on international humanitarian law was currently considering the status of international instruments that Nigeria is party to or has yet to join. While consultations were ongoing, the implementing legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty had not yet been sent by the committee to parliament.[2]In 2006, Nigeria reported that an implementation bill was undergoing its first reading in the National Assembly.[3]
Nigeria last submitted an Article 7 report in 2012, for the period from 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2011.[4]As of 4 October 2013, it had yet to submit its Article 7 report for 2012 which was due on 30 April 2013.
Nigeria attended the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in December 2012. It did not attend the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in May 2013.
Nigeria has signed, but not ratified, the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).
Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use
Nigeria is not known to have ever produced or exported antipersonnel mines. In 2009 and 2010, Nigeria reported the past production of what it described as “conventional AP [antipersonnel] landmines” that was victim-activated and attached a photograph of what it said was a “Biafran fabricated landmine (OGBUNIGWE) used as Anti-Personnel landmines during the Nigerian Civil War 1967–70.”[5]
In the past, Nigeria has stated that it has not acquired or used antipersonnel mines since the 1967–1970 Biafra Civil War. Nigeria has denied allegations that its Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) troops used mines in the 1990s in Liberia and Sierra Leone.[6]
In February 2001, the Chief of Operations of the Nigerian Army reported to the Monitor that Nigeria had destroyed its antipersonnel mines remaining after the war, and had retained none for training or development purposes.[7] In May 2002, however, Nigeria presented photographs to the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction showing that antipersonnel mines were among munitions involved in a January 2002 fire and explosion at the Ammunition Transit Depot in Ikeja Cantoment, Lagos.[8]
In its initial Article 7 report in 2004, Nigeria declared a stockpile of 3,364 so-called ‘Dimbat’ mines for research and training.[9] In 2005, Nigeria reported that all of its retained mines had been destroyed.[10] Nigeria stated in 2007, “With the completion of these destruction exercises, we are able to report that there are no more anti-personnel mines on Nigeria soil.”[11] However, in 2009, Nigeria reported 3,364 “British made AP mines” as retained for training and also stated that it had destroyed 9,786 stockpiled “British made AP landmines” in 2005.[12] In 2010 and again in 2012, Nigeria continued to list retaining 3,364 “British and Czechoslovakian made AP Landmine[s]” but did not specify the types.[13]
[1] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the period 1 April 2010–31 March 2011), Form A. In the 2009 report, Nigeria also stated that an interministerial committee had been formed to prepare a draft bill and that once drafted, the bill would be presented to the National Assembly for consideration. Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the period 2006–2009), Form A.
[2] Interview with Mimidoo Achakpa, Coordinator, International Action Network on Small Arms (Nigeria), Director, Women’s Right to Education Programme (WREP), Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, in Lusaka, 13 September 2013.
[3]Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form A, 22 August 2006.
[4] Nigeria has submitted five previous reports, in 2010, 2009, on 22 June 2004, 15 April 2005, and 22 August 2006. Its initial Article 7 report was submitted almost two years after the initial deadline.
[5] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the 1 July 2009–31 December 2009), Forms H and J.
[6] For further details, see Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 256–257; and Landmine Monitor Report 1999, pp. 201–203.
[7] Interview with Maj. General Yellow-Duke, Bamako, in Mali, 15 February 2001.
[8] Presentation by Bob Scott, Munitions Consultants, United Kingdom (UK), Mine Ban Treaty Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, Geneva, 30 May 2002. For details, see Landmine Monitor Report 2004, pp. 638–641.
[9] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form D, 22 June 2004. The origins of the mines were not given, but the Monitor has reported that in the past Nigeria imported antipersonnel mines from the former Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union, the former Czechoslovakia, France, and the UK. For details, see Landmine Monitor Report 1999, pp. 202–203.
[10]Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Forms D and G, 15 April 2005. Two hundred antipersonnel mines were destroyed in November 2004, and the remaining 3,164 were destroyed in February 2005 in a ceremony witnessed by Nigeria’s then-President, officials from the Ministry of Defence, and foreign observers. Nigeria also reported destroying at the same time 1,836 pieces of unexploded ordnance recovered from the Lagos Ammunition Transit Depot explosion. It did not specify how many of these items were antipersonnel mines.
[11] Letter from Amb. Dr. Martin I. Uhomoibhi, Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the UN in Geneva, 10 July 2007.
[12] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the period 2006–2009), Forms D and G.
[13]Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the period 1 April 2010–31 March 2011), Form B; and Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the 1 July 2009–31 December 2009), Form B.
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