LM Report 2000

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NIGER

Key developments since March 1999: Niger has not submitted its Article 7 report, which was due by 27 February 2000. Peace agreements signed in 1998 called for demining of the northern areas, but no mine clearance is believed to have taken place yet.

Niger signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified on 23 March 1999. The treaty entered into force for Niger on 1 September 1999. It has not undertaken any national implementation measures. Niger has not yet submitted its Article 7 transparency report, which was due by 27 February 2000. In January 2000, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Landmine Monitor that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had sent the reporting form to the Strategic Studies section of the Ministry of Defense to complete and that the report would be submitted by the due date.^[1]

Niger participated in the First Meeting of States Parties in Maputo in May 1999, with a delegation of officials from the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs. It has not attended any of the treaty intersessional meetings in Geneva in 1999 and 2000. While Niger supported pro-ban UN General Assembly resolutions in 1996, 1997, and 1998, it was absent from the vote on the UNGA resolution in support of the treaty on 1 December 1999.

Niger is not a party to Amended Protocol II of the the Convention on Conventional Weapons, nor is it a member of the Conference on Disarmament.

While Niger is not believed to have ever produced or exported antipersonnel mines, its armed forces are believed to stockpile AP mines. The government has not provided information on the quantity or types of mines held in storage.

While Niger’s political situation stabilized somewhat in December 1999 when a new government was inaugurated, non-state actors in the north and east of the country continue to be active, including the Tuareg and Toubou rebels. Antipersonnel mines have been used in the past, allegedly by both the Niger Armed Forces and the rebels. Although there have been new victims to uncleared mines, Landmine Monitor could not establish if these were victims from mines laid in 1999 and 2000 or from mines laid before this time. According to an NGO called “Democracy 2000,” the Sahara Revolutionary Armed Forces (comprising FARS and Toubou rebels) laid AP mines to protect their bases in the Aïr mountains in the north and central regions of the country and in the Ténéré area of in the Sahara desert.^[2]

Peace agreements signed with the FARS Toubou rebellion in N’Djaména in 1998 included provisions for demining of the northern areas of Niger affected by mines, but no mine clearance is believed to have taken place yet. Niger is mine-affected not only from recent armed conflict, but also from mine-laying dating back to World War Two.

The Niger Armed Forces kept records of mine victims in 1999 but exact details are not publicly available. Democracy 2000 told Landmine Monitor that five people were maimed by AP landmines and cared for at the Gamkallé military garrison in Niamey, and that a civilian truck hit an AT mine near the Libyan border, causing the death of at least three people.^[3]

[1] Interview with Ado El Hadj Abou, Head of the Division for United Nations and International Conferences, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 19 January 2000.
[2] Interview with Ali Sékou Maina, Program Director, Democracy 2000, Niamey, 10 March 2000.
[3] Ibid.