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Treaty Status | Management & Coordination | Impact (contamination & casualties) | Addressing the Impact (land release, risk education, victim assistance)

Country summary

The Republic of Angola is contaminated with landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) as a result of four decades of armed conflict, which ended in 2002.

Angola became a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty on 1 January 2003, but has not yet enacted national legislation to implement the treaty. Angola has acknowledged using antipersonnel mines between December 1997 and April 2002.

Mine clearance in Angola began in 1994 during a United Nations (UN) verification mission. A Landmine Impact Survey was completed in 2005, and non-technical survey was conducted prior to Angola’s 2017 Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 extension request. In 2019, Angola completed non-technical survey in all 18 provinces, enabling a significant amount of uncontaminated land to be released and providing a clearer understanding of the extent of contamination.[1]

Angola has requested two extensions to its Article 5 clearance deadline: a five-year extension until January 2018, and an extension for a further eight years until December 2025. Angola reports that funding shortfalls are the most significant challenge to meeting this deadline.[2]

Risk education is conducted by operators as an integrated part of survey, clearance and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), but is not integrated into the school curriculum.

Angola has an estimated 60,000–88,000 mine/ERW victims, but it is thought that the true number may be higher as there is no national casualty surveillance system, and many casualties likely go unreported. Investment to rebuild infrastructure and increase access to medical facilities has been undertaken. The Presidential Plan for Physical Rehabilitation was launched in 2013 to increase the availability of physical rehabilitation services, provide materials to rehabilitation centers, and improve the national referral system.[3] A victim survey was partially carried out that same year, but stalled.

By 2015, an economic crisis had reduced government funding for victim assistance, and as a result, there has been a near shutdown of victim assistance programs, with public rehabilitation centers unable to produce new prosthetics and little time-bound reporting on service provision.

Treaty status

Treaty status overview

Angola became a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty on 1 January 2003 and has since submitted two Article 5 deadline extension requests for clearance. Its current Article 5 deadline for clearance of antipersonnel mines is 31 December 2025.[4]

Management and coordination

Mine action management and coordination

Mine action management and coordination overview[5]

Coordination

The National Intersectoral Commission for Demining and Humanitarian Assistance (Comissão Nacional Intersectorial de Desminagem e Assistência Humanitária, CNIDAH) is mandated to coordinate and oversee the mine action sector in Angola.[6] It reports to the Council of Ministers and is responsible for accreditation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and commercial demining companies. CNIDAH has 18 provincial operations offices.

The Executive Commission for Demining (Comissão Executiva de Desminagem, CED), under the supervision of CNIDAH, is responsible for monitoring and controlling the activities of the national mine action operators (Angolan Armed Forces, Military Office of the President, National Institute for Demining, and Police Border Guard).[7] Government financial contributions to CED are mainly to support demining for infrastructure and verification, and for clearance of contaminated roads.[8]

The National Institute for Demining (Instituto Nacional de Desminagem, INAD), established in 2002, is responsible for demining operations and training in Angola.

Strategies and policy

Angola has a five-year National Mine Action Strategy in place for 2020–2025, aligned to the Oslo Action Plan. The strategy covers land release, residual contamination management, risk education, victim assistance, advocacy, and communication and coordination.[9] Development of the strategy was supported by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD).[10]

A National Demining Workplan, covering 2020–2025, was developed to support implementation of the National Mine Action Strategy over the same period.

Information management

Angola’s mine action program has previously experienced difficulties in information management, but in 2016, Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) Next Generation was installed, with support from GICHD. Angola’s national database has been fully reconciled and the previous data backlog cleared.[11] INAD is responsible for the IMSMA database, and efforts have been made to harmonize CED data with the CNIDAH database.

Gender and diversity

Gender and diversity are mentioned as cross-cutting issues in the National Mine Action Strategy 2020–2025, but are not included in Angola’s Article 5 implementation workplan. Angola signed the Working Paper on Gender Equality at the Oslo Review Conference in November 2019.[12]

In 2017, The HALO Trust launched the “100 Women in Demining” project in Angola, to train and employ all-female demining teams to create a space for women’s employment. In 2020, 76 women had been recruited, with six promoted to leadership training, and 33 having completed paramedic training.[13]

Risk education management and coordination

Risk education management and coordination overview[14]

Coordination

CNIDAH oversees risk education activities in Angola, and monitors and approves risk education methods, but there is no formal risk education coordination mechanism at national level. However, regular meetings are held between CNIDAH and international mine action operators in Angola.[15]

Monthly meetings are attended by Mines Advisory Group (MAG), Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and The HALO Trust, who undertake risk education activities in Angola under a contract issued by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID).[16]

Victim assistance management and coordination

Victim assistance management and coordination overview[17]

Note: NGO=non-governmental organization.

Laws and policies

In July 2019, the Angolan government was considering doubling the pension for soldiers from the 1975–2002 Angolan Civil War, along with providing free transport and greater access to schools and health facilities. Yet, many of those eligible for pensions were not receiving them.[18]

Impact

Contamination

Contamination (as of December 2019)[19]

Note: CHA=confirmed hazardous area; SHA=suspected hazardous area; ERW=explosive remnant of war.

Landmine contamination

Angola’s contamination is the result of more than 40 years of internal armed conflict that ended in 2002, during which a range of national and foreign armed movements and groups laid mines, often sporadically. The most affected provinces are those that witnessed the fiercest and most prolonged fighting, such as Bié, Kuando Kubango, and Moxico. Contamination affects urban and rural areas.

CNIDAH reported in 2017 that the continued presence of landmines remains a serious impediment to development projects related to economic diversification, agriculture, tourism, and mining.[20]

Cluster munition remnants contamination

The extent to which Angola is affected by cluster munition remnants remains unclear. There is no confirmed contamination, although abandoned cluster munitions or unexploded submunitions may be present as a result of the armed conflict that ended in 2002. However, it is unclear when, or by whom, cluster munitions were used in Angola.

ERW contamination

Angola also has a significant problem with contamination by other types of ERW, which in some areas of the country may pose more of a threat to communities than landmines.[21]

Casualties

Casualties overview[22]

Note: ERW=explosive remnant of war.

Casualties: details

There is no national casualty surveillance or data collection system in Angola. Casualties increased significantly from 30 in 2018, to 76 in 2019. Available data on casualties was obtained from media reports, and most did not specify the device type, resulting in most casualties (64) reported as from undifferentiated mines/ERW. Antivehicle mines caused at least 11 of reported casualties in 2019.

According to Angola’s Minister of Social Action, Family and Women’s Promotion, from January 2017 to June 2019, 156 people were killed, including 87 children, in 70 separate incidents.[23]

MAG reported that in the three provinces where it works—Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul, and Moxico—incidents likely go unreported due to lack of communication and reporting systems.[24] In 2015, The HALO Trust also noted that “anecdotally, the heavy toll of landmines in Angola is well known. However, at national and provincial levels, Angola has always lacked an effective mechanism for systematic recording of accident data and as a result, its impact is underestimated.”[25]

The HALO Trust conducted a desk review of all mine/ERW incidents in Angola from 1975–2015, combining media reports with its own records. In 2016 and 2017, its findings were updated based on the re-survey of mined areas. As of 31 March 2017, The HALO Trust identified 1,651 casualties from 815 mine/ERW incidents across nine provinces.[26] While not representative of all casualties in those provinces over the time period, the review indicated that antivehicle mines were the most common cause of injury, and that the fatality rate from incidents involving explosive devices was higher than previously believed. The review also indicated that 2002 and 2003 witnessed the most mine/ERW casualties, when Angolans returned to their homes after the end of the civil war.[27]

As of the end of 2014, CNIDAH had registered 9,165 survivors across the provinces of Benguela, Cabinda, Cunene, Huambo, Huíla, Malanje, Namibe, Uíge, and Zaire, as part of its national mine/ERW victim survey.[28] The survey was suspended due to a lack of funds. CNIDAH estimated that the total number of injured mine/ERW casualties might be between 40,000 and 60,000.[29] Angola had previously estimated that there were some 80,000 mine survivors in Angola, representing 78% of all persons with disabilities.[30]

The Angolan government conducted a nationwide census in 2014, which found that 88,716 people were living with a disability caused by mines/ERW. Survivors were identified in all 18 provinces, with one quarter living in Luanda. Mine/ERW survivors represented one eighth all disabled people in Angola, with 2.5% of the population identified in the survey as having disabilities. Approximately two-thirds of survivors were concentrated in Luanda, with others found in the mine-affected provinces of Bié, Huambo, Malange, and Moxico.[31]

Cluster munition remnants casualties

No casualties from cluster munition remnants were reported in Angola in 2019, and the number of unexploded submunition casualties in the country is unclear.

CNIDAH’s national victim survey identified 354 cluster munition survivors, all in the province of Huambo.[32] In 2014 and 2015, Monitor reports included these figures. Subsequent information has not reconfirmed this data and calls this total into question. The survey in Huambo was conducted by the Institute for the Support of Vulnerable Children (Instituto ao Apoio a crianca Vulneravel, IACV), which is not a mine action operator, and the survey questionnaire used by IACV did not include the category of cluster munitions as a specific cause of injury.[33] In 2015, The HALO Trust conducted a desk review of all known incidents from 1975–2015, limited to its areas of operation, which include Huambo province. The review did not identify any cluster munition victims.[34] NPA compiled a desk review on potential cluster munition contamination in Angola but did not record any casualties. However, in the course of the review, NPA was able to document the clearance and identification of unexploded cluster submunitions.[35]

Addressing the impact

Mine action

Operators and service providers

Clearance operators

Clearance

Land release overview[36]

Note: ERW=explosive remnant of war.

Clearance and survey

At the time of Angola’s 2017 Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 extension request, 221.4km² of land was identified as contaminated, of which 149.51km² was classed as confirmed hazardous areas (CHA).

This has been reduced through non-technical survey. As of the end of 2019, Angola had 88.02km² of contaminated land remaining, comprising 84.79km² of CHA and 3.23km² suspected hazardous area (SHA).[37] At the Eighteenth Meeting of State Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, held in November 2020, Angola reported that 1,143 minefields remained, comprising 84km² in total.[38] The provinces of Huambo, Melange, and Namibe are reported to be nearing completion of clearance.[39]

Angola cleared 1.92km² of mine contaminated land in 2019, an increase from 1.04km² in 2018.

The main challenge to meeting its Article 5 deadline of 2025 is a funding shortfall. Following oil boom in 2010, Angola achieved upper-middle income status, and donor funding for mine action later decreased from US$32.1 million in 2014 to US$3.1 million in 2017.[40] The Angolan government budget for 2019 allocated US$15 million for clearance, with US$4.7 million allocated to CED for demining areas where mines/ERW have high social and economic impact.[41] However, Angola identified a budget deficit of US$211 million to clear its remaining contamination.[42]

In 2019, Angola reported that mine clearance was being funded through various sources, including traditional donors (see Angola’s support for mine action profile for more information), and oil and gas companies such as British Petroleum and ENI, securing US$66 million in total.[43]

The Angolan government has committed US$60 million, over five years, for the clearance of an area of special natural significance in the south of the country, with a view to the development of a sustainable, community-focused ecotourism project. The HALO Trust is set to begin clearance in the Okavango Delta region as part of this project.[44]

In 2019, no land contaminated with cluster munitions in Angola was reported to have been cleared, but 164 submunitions were found and destroyed through EOD callouts.[45]

Residual contamination

Angola reported that it was planning for the establishment of a rapid response capacity, to respond to any future residual contamination once clearance had been completed. CNIDAH prioritized the formulation of a national residual contamination management strategy in 2020.[46]

Risk Education

Operators and service providers

Risk education operators[47]

Note: EOD=explosive ordnance disposal; IDP=internally displaced persons.

Beneficiary numbers

Beneficiary numbers

Implementation

Risk education activities in Angola are conducted in urban, peri-urban and rural areas, and focus mainly on the threat from landmines, antivehicle mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO).

Risk education activities are conducted as stand-alone activities, but more commonly as part of clearance and EOD tasks. CNIDAH reports that risk education is implemented by all operators during their clearance operations. Operators collect information on suspected areas and landmine victims.[48]

Risk education in Angola is mainly delivered through face-to-face community sessions, which are held in a variety of locations including marketplaces, schools, churches, and households. This is the primary method of communication because those most at risk tend to live in rural areas, where access to other means of delivery is limited.[49] Risk education is not integrated into the primary or secondary school curriculums in Angola.[50]

During 2017–2018, MAG provided risk education in camps, reception areas and host communities for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and to international NGO staff and Angolan officials responding to the displacement crisis in Lunda Norte province.[51]

MAG also works with Radio Moxico to broadcast risk education information in six different local languages. The radio station has a catchment audience of around 500,000 people.[52]

Challenges for delivery of risk education in Angola include the large size of the areas covered by operators, and limited access among the population to media, including TV, radio and internet.[53]

Target groups

Data is available to target risk education, but victim data is under-reported. Operators collect data and coordinate with CNIDAH operations rooms and provincial police and hospitals to support the provision of risk education.[54] Victim data, when available, is also sent to CNIDAH at the national level for incorporation into its database.[55]

Target groups for risk education in Angola include farmers, hunters, gatherers, animal herders, informal workers, churchgoers, market traders, travelers and children. Children are considered to be at higher risk of mine/ERW incidents due to lack of knowledge about the war and its impacts.

New developments in 2019–2020

In April–May 2020, MAG adapted its risk education radio messages to focus on people returning to work after the COVID-19 lockdown, providing information on how report explosive ordnance.[56]

In 2020, MAG also employed a new female risk education staff member, specializing in provision of risk education in schools and to share her experiences as a landmine victim.

In 2019, the Government of Angola, through the National Demining Institute (NDI) and CNIDAH, implemented risk education projects in the province of Kwanza Sul, mainly targeting children.

Victim Assistance

Providers and activities

Victim assistance providers

Needs assessment

CNIDAH aims to complete its needs assessment of mine survivors, and lists this as a main victim assistance priority.[57] As of the end of 2019, 9,296 victims have been assessed in nine provinces, but funds are lacking to complete the assessment or act upon the assessments already made.[58]

The CNIDAH Department of Mine Victim Assistance registration project, which documented the needs of individual survivors, has been suspended since 2014 due to lack of funding.[59] Some data is being collected, as evidenced by the casualty figures, but the consistency of reporting is unclear.

Medical care and rehabilitation

Few public rehabilitation centers in Angola are able to produce new prosthetic or mobility devices. Rehabilitation services are available via public clinics, such a Neves Bendinha Orthopedic Centre in Luanda province, but reporting on beneficiary numbers is very limited.[60] Angola’s rehabilitation programs are limited to physical rehabilitation and the repair of existing prosthetic devices, due to a lack of raw materials. Lwini Foundation, a privately-run and privately-funded group, continued to produce devices in 2019.[61] However, in 2020, it was reported that construction of a new facility for the Lwini Foundation in Angola had stalled due to a lack of funding.[62]

Socio-economic and psychosocial inclusion

The National Association of the Disabled of Angola (Associação Nacional dos deficientes de Angola, ANDA) leads a community-based rehabilitation program titled ‘‘Come with me,’’ which provides training and outreach in the provinces of Malange, Huila, Bié, Moxico, Cabinda, Uige and Cuanza Sul. The uncertain economic situation in Angola limits the effectiveness of economic reintegration activities for mine victims.[63] Angola reported that inclusive and special education, as well as computer literacy and braille, were among its priorities with regard to victim assistance.[64]