LM Report 2001

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NIGER

Niger signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, ratified it on 23 March 1999 and became a State Party on 1 September 1999. Niger has apparently not yet undertaken any national implementation measures. Niger has not provided its first transparency report as required by Mine Ban Treaty Article 7, which was due by 28 February 2000. At the beginning of February 2001, Landmine Monitor was informed that the report was ready, and was being transmitted to the UN.^[1]

Niger did not participate in the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, but participated in the May 2001 intersessional Standing Committee meetings. It attended the Bamako Seminar on the Universalization and Implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty in Africa, held in Mali on 15-16 February 2001. Niger co-sponsored United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/33v supporting the Mine Ban Treaty, but was not eligible to vote on the resolution itself.

Niger adhered to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its three original Protocols on 10 November 1992. It has not adhered to Amended Protocol II.

Niger is not believed to have ever produced or exported antipersonnel mines.^[2] It is believed to retain a stock of antipersonnel mines, but no information on the quantity, characteristics and origin has been obtained. Niger reportedly plans to proceed to antipersonnel mine destruction as soon as possible.^[3] The signature of peace agreements with both groups led in September 2000 to a ceremony called the “flame of peace,” during which the parties to the conflict burnt a certain quantity of weapons. According to Colonel Maï Moctar Kassouma, a certain number of antipersonnel mines should have been burnt during this ceremony, but this did not occur for technical reasons.^[4]

The use of antipersonnel mines during the conflict period was attributed to both Tuareg and Tubu rebels and to the regular army.^[5] Antipersonnel mines were laid in Aïr Mountains, the northern central area of the country and at the mouth of the Tenere river.^[6] The peace agreements with FARS Tubu rebellion signed in N’Djamena, Chad, in 1998, included provision for demining in mine-affected areas of the country. To date, however, no demining operations or mine awareness programs have taken place. Niger has not provided or received any financial contribution to humanitarian mine action, mine awareness or victim assistance programs.

Information on victims has been gathered for both 1997 and 1998 by army services but is not publicly available. No other information has been made publicly available.

^[1] Telephone interview with Col. Amadou Halilou, Cooperation and African Integration, Niamey, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Niger, 6 February 2001.
^[2] Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 88.
^[3] Interview with Col. Maï Moctar Kassouma, President of the National Commission for Collection and Control of Illicit Weapons (Commission Nationale pour la Collecte et de Contrôle des Armes Illicites, CNCCAI), Bamako, Mali, 16 February 2001.
^[4] Ibid.
^[5] For further details see Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 88.
^[6] Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 88.

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