Niger signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December
1997. Niger participated in few meetings of the Ottawa Process and did not
endorse the Brussels Declaration. It did support the 1996, 1997 and 1998 UN
General Assembly resolutions. On 29 November 1998, the National Assembly passed
a law authorizing the government to ratify the ban and, on 23 March 1999, Niger
ratified. There is no domestic implementation legislation as yet. Niger is a
party to the CCW and ratified the original Protocol II on landmines on 10
November 1992. It has yet to ratify amended Protocol II.
Niger is not believed to be involved in the production or export of
antipersonnel mines. It can be assumed that the Nigérien armed forces
hold stockpiles of antipersonnel mines, though government officials have been
evasive on this topic.[1]
Sporadic military activity by Tuareg and other rebel groups and a prevailing
state of near-war in much of the north and east, have tended to reinforce
military secrecy as far as the army's arsenal is concerned. This lack of
transparency makes it difficult to estimate the quantity, origins and
characteristics of the army's weaponry .
There are persistent allegations that the Army used antipersonnel mines in
the far north of Niger during the Tuareg insurgency of
1990-96.[2] Non-state actors were
also involved in the laying of AP mines until both warring parties signed the
peace agreements.[3] Rebel
activity against the Army persists in the far north and the east, near
Diffa.[4]
Niger has a problem with uncleared landmines in the far north of the
country—the legacy of mine-laying activity during the World War
II.[5] Nigérien sources
claim these mines were originally placed on Libyan soil during WWII, near the
frontier with Niger, but shifted over the border due to the slow movement of
sand dunes over the decades.[6]
Lack of statistics makes it difficult to be certain of the scale of this. Few
civilians are affected: the Aïr and Ténéré areas are
very sparsely populated.
The exact number of mine victims is unknown. Nevertheless, according to
investigations by the Association nigérienne de défense des droits
de l'Homme (ANDDH) it has been documented that during the government-Tuareg
conflict three mine victims died in the region of Agadez-Tanout and another
person died in the area of Tchiro. According to a 1998 US State Department
report, Hidden Killers, eleven landmine casualties were reported in Niger
in 1997.[7] Due to the
information blackout on the issue and the relative isolation of the mined areas,
these figures are probably far from
exhaustive.[8] Niger is not
involved in mine clearance, survey and assessment work, or mine awareness
education. Neither is Niger involved in landmine victim or survivor
assistance.
[1]LM Researcher interviews
with Nigérien military and diplomatic personnel, Niamey and Paris,
February and March 1999.
[2]This observation is based
upon discussions with the Association nigérienne pour la défense
des droits de l'homme (ANDDH) and certain ex-members of the Organisation de
resistance armée (ORA), the Tuareg-led umbrella group of insurgent groups
during the later phase of the rebellion. In addition, UK-based Franco-phone
Africa specialist journalist Andrew Manley met on several occasions in mid-1994
with Nigérien Tuareg insurgents who had been evacuated to Paris by French
sympathisers, for corrective surgery and aftercare for landmine-related
injuries. They testified that these had been inflicted by unmarked minefields
in combat zones in the Nigérien north, and that the mines had been laid
by the Nigérien armed forces.
[4]"Tension in Central
Sahara,” U.N. Integrated Regional Information Network, 18 March 1999.
[5]Recontre Africaine pour la
Defense des Droits de l'Homme (Raddho) and African Topics, Media
Workshop, Dakar, Senegal, 3 November 1997; and Union Interafrican des droits de
l’Homme and International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Inter-African NGO
Seminar on Landmines, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 3-5 June 1998.
[6]LM Researcher interviews
with Nigérien military personnel, Niamey and Paris, February and March
1999.
[7]U.S. Department of State,
Hidden Killers: The Global Landmine Crisis (Washington D.C.: U.S.
Department of State, 1998) p. A-4.
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