Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty

Policy

The Republic of Senegal signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 24 September 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. On 3 August 2005, the President signed a national implementation law.[1] The law makes production, purchase, sale, stockpiling, transfer, and use of antipersonnel mines a criminal offense.[2]

Senegal submitted its annual Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 15 June 2011, covering calendar year 2010. It submitted 11 previous reports.[3]

Senegal attended the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010, where it made statements on victim assistance, mine clearance, extension requests by Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania, and on the evaluation of the Implementation Support Unit (ISU). At the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2011, Senegal made statements on its progress towards meeting its mine clearance deadline, victim assistance, and the ISU/Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining agreement.

Senegal is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines, but has never submitted an annual transparency report as required under Article 13. It is also party to CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, retention, and use

Government authorities claim that Senegal has never used antipersonnel mines inside or outside the country.[4] Senegal has consistently stated in its Article 7 reports that it has never produced, possessed, or stockpiled mines.

In April 2010, Senegal reported that 28 mines were used in training during 2009. These mines had been collected from demining operations or taken from rebel stockpiles discovered in the field. Twenty-four mines were destroyed during training activities by the armed forces and four mines were defuzed and stored by the NGO Handicap International (HI) for training purposes.[5] Previously Senegal had only reported the use of mines for training in one year, 2006.[6]

Sporadic armed conflict in the Casamance region of Senegal continued between government forces and the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (Mouvement des Forces Démocratiques de Casamance, MFDC).[7] There have not been any allegations of new use of antipersonnel mines by the MFDC in this reporting period (from May 2010 to May 2011), but use of antivehicle mines by armed groups resulted in civilian and military deaths and injuries.[8]

In March 2009, an MFDC representative who claimed to speak on behalf of all factions told the Monitor, “For the time being we don’t need mines, but [possible future use] will entirely depend on the government. Mines are a defensive tool for us. The state has obliged us to use mines and to go to war.”[9]

Previously, in March and April 2006, the Salif Sadio faction of the MFDC fled Senegal and laid both antipersonnel and antivehicle mines in northern Guinea-Bissau.[10] There were also credible allegations of use of antipersonnel mines by MFDC rebels in Senegal in 1999 and 2000.[11] In 2010, the Sadio faction stated to the Swiss NGO Geneva Call that they did not use antipersonnel mines but would not rule out use of the weapon in the future. The faction admitted to using antivehicle mines. Geneva Call also held a meeting with the Kassolol faction of the MFDC at which the leaders of the faction confirmed their agreement in principle to enable the “gradual implementation” of humanitarian demining.[12]