Key developments
since March 1999: On 21 July 2000 Mauritania became the 100th
country to ratify the Mine Ban Treaty. Mauritania is now receiving demining
training and assistance from the United States.
Mauritania signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997. In February 1999,
the National Assembly and the Senate passed a law authorizing the President to
ratify the treaty.[1] Just as
Landmine Monitor Report 2000 went to print, on 21 July 2000, Mauritania
deposited its instrument of ratification with the United Nations, thus becoming
the 100th country to ratify the Mine Ban Treaty. On the occasion,
Mauritania’s Ambassador to Canada, Adberrahim Ould Hadrami said,
“Mauritania is located in the most mine-affected region in the world.
Mauritania’s ratification of the Ottawa Convention demonstrates our
commitment to join the international community in addressing the landmine
problem in Africa and
elsewhere.”[2]
Mauritania participated in the First Meeting of States Parties in Maputo in
May 1999, represented by Ambassador Abderrahim Ould Hadrami, the Director of
International Organizations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It has not
attended any of the treaty intersessional meetings in Geneva. Mauritania was
absent from the vote on UN General Assembly Resolution 54/54B in support of the
Mine Ban Treaty in December 1999, but had voted in favor of pro-ban UNGA
resolutions in 1997 and 1998. Mauritania is not a party to the Convention on
Conventional Weapons and is not a member of the Conference on Disarmament.
Mauritania has never produced or exported antipersonnel landmines. It is
believed to have imported mines from France, Britain, Italy, Egypt, former
Soviet Union, former Yugoslavia, and
Argentina.[3] Details on its
stockpile of AP mines are currently unknown.
Mauritania is mine-affected from World War II and from the war in Western
Sahara. Mines are found in the Adrar region, the Tiris Zemour region and the
Dakhalt Nouadibou region, as well as around the military bases of F'Derik,
Bir-Mogrein, and Tour Bleue in
Nouadhibou.[4]
Mauritania was accepted into the U.S. humanitarian demining program on 10
December 1998. It will receive approximately $3.185 million in bilateral
demining assistance from the U.S. in 1999 and
2000.[5] In March 2000, at
Z'Reida Base, near Nouakchott, a Mauritanian army company participated in a
demining training session by U.S. military
personnel.[6]
There is no mine awareness program underway at present and there is no
reliable assessment of the number of landmine casualties. The U.S. Department
of State estimated nineteen mine casualties in
1998.[7] In December 1999 two
people were reported killed and two injured in a mine incident at Laguera, in
the Nouadhibou area.[8]
[1] Official Journal, N°944, 15 February
1999. [2] Canada’s Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade press release No. 186, “Axworthy
Welcomes 100th Ratification of Landmine Convention,” 27 July
2000. [3] Osservatario sul commercio delle
arme report, Italy Toscane IRES. [4]
Interview with three mine clearance specialists, 26 December
1999. [5] U.S. Department of State,
“Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign Operations, FY 2001
– Bureau of African Affairs,” 15 March 2000; U.S. Department of
State, “To Walk the Earth in Safety,” April 1999, p. 11; U.S.
Department of State, Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of
Humanitarian Demining Programs, Fact Sheet: “Meeting of the Interagency
Working Group on Demining 10 December
1998.” [6] Interview with Peter John
Crittenden, U.S. liaison officer, U.S. Embassy, December
1999. [7] U.S. State Department, Hidden
Killers, September 1998, p. A-2. [8]
Interview with Dr. Anne, Surgeon, CHN, 9 April 2000.