Policy

The Republic of Cameroon signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 19 September 2002, becoming a State Party on 1 March 2003.

Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically has not been enacted. Cameroon submitted its initial Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 5 December 2005 and a subsequent report in August 2009 but has not provided any further annual reports.

Cameroon destroyed its stockpile of 9,187 antipersonnel mines in April 2003. Cameroon apparently retains 3,154 “inactive mines” for training purposes.[1] It has not provided further reporting on the use of retained mines, as agreed by States Parties.

Cameroon attended the Sixteenth Meeting of States Parties in Vienna, Austria in December 2017 but did not make any statements. It did not attend the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2018, nor the treaty’s intersessional meetings in June 2018.

Cameroon is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines, but not CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

Use

Cameroon has previously stated that it has not used, produced, or exported antipersonnel mines and will not facilitate their transit through its country.[2]

Non-state armed groups

In both 2018 and early 2019, UNMAS identified use of pressure plate-initiated improvised mines by Boko Haram in northern Cameroon.[3] However, it is unclear if these improvised mines were detonated due to the pressure exerted by weight of a person or a vehicle. Such use was previously identified in 2016 and 2017.[4]

Most recently, a soldier and two civilians were killed on 15 September 2017 by a landmine planted by Boko Haram between Abdouri and Woulba, in the country’s northern region.[5]

The use of victim-activated improvised mines has regularly been reported in the northern extreme of the country, where it shares borders with Nigeria and Chad, though several of the incidents reported as “landmines” in the press appear to be antivehicle mines or remote-controlled improvised explosive devices.[6] In May 2015, Cameroon’s Defense Minister, Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o, stated that the Cameroonian military’s efforts to secure the country's northern border with Nigeria are being hampered by landmines planted by Boko Haram.[7] Boko Haram has been documented to manufacture and use victim-activated improvised explosive devices across the border in Nigeria.[8] In 2015, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported the presence of landmines in Fotokol and Mayo Moskota, both in Logone et Chari department.[9]