Summary

Non-signatory Egypt has not taken any steps to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions and continues to express its opposition to certain provisions. It last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2013. Egypt abstained from voting on the key annual United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2021.

Egypt is a producer, importer, and exporter of cluster munitions. It possesses a stockpile of cluster munitions, but claims not to use them.

Policy

The Arab Republic of Egypt has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Egypt has not taken any steps to accede to the convention and has elaborated several reasons for not doing so.[1] In November 2021, Egypt repeated its criticism of the convention’s definition of cluster munitions, which it alleges was “deliberately designed to fit the specific production requirements of some states.” Egypt also reiterated its long-held concern over how the convention was created outside UN auspices.[2]

Egypt participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention, including the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer, but it did not adopt the convention or attend the subsequent Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.[3] Egypt expressed concern in October 2008 over both the “substantive content” of the convention and “the process which led to its conclusion outside the framework of the United Nations.”[4]

Egypt has not participated in any meetings of the convention since 2013.[5] It was invited to, but did not attend, the Second Review Conference held in November 2020 and September 2021.

In December 2021, Egypt abstained from voting on a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urged states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions “to join as soon as possible,” and provided a statement to explain its vote.[6] Egypt has abstained from the annual vote on the UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

Egypt is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Egypt signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1981, but never ratified it.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Egypt is a producer and exporter of cluster munitions. It has also imported cluster munitions and possesses a stockpile.

Two state-owned Egyptian companies have produced ground-launched cluster munitions:

• SAKR Factory for Developed Industries has produced two types of 122mm surface-to-surface rockets: the SAKR-18 and SAKR-36, containing 72 and 98 dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions, respectively;[7]
• Heliopolis Company for Chemical Industries has produced 122mm and 130mm artillery projectiles, which contain 18 and 28 DPICM submunitions, respectively.[8] Heliopolis-made cluster munitions were displayed by Egypt’s Ministry of Military Production for sale at the international IDEX arms fair in Abu Dhabi in February 2017.[9]

Evidence indicates that Egypt exported or otherwise transferred cluster munitions to Syria in the past, prior to 2013.[10] Human Rights Watch (HRW) and others documented Syrian government use of 122mm cluster munition rockets bearing the markings of the SAKR Factory for Developed Industries.[11] The state-owned company has denied providing rockets to the Syrian government.[12]

Egypt has imported a significant quantity of cluster munitions, primarily from the United States (US), which provided at least 760 CBU-87 cluster bombs (each containing 202 BLU-97 submunitions) as part of a foreign military sales program in the early 1990s.[13] Lockheed Martin Corporation was awarded a US$36 million contract to produce 485 M26A1 extended range rockets for its M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System in 1991.[14] Egypt also received 1,300 Rockeye cluster bombs from the US between 1970 and 1995.[15]

KMG-U dispensers of Soviet-origin are in service for Egypt’s aircraft, according to Jane’s Information Group.[16]

Use

During the Oslo Process, Egypt stated that it had never used cluster munitions.[17]

Previous allegations

There have been several allegations of new use of cluster munitions by Egyptian forces since the convention was adopted. In February 2018, Amnesty International condemned new use of cluster munitions in the Sinai by the Egyptian Air Force, citing evidence from two videos posted by Egyptian military social media accounts, including one that showed US-made CBU-87 Combined Effects Munitions, each containing 202 BLU-97 bomblets, being loaded on to Egyptian aircraft.[18] A February 2018 video posted on Twitter by the Egyptian Army’s official spokesperson showed a US made Mk-118 submunition used in Rockeye cluster bombs that Egyptian armed forces allege was found and destroyed in northern Sinai.[19] Further remnants of the same Mk-118 submunition, plus canister packing materials, were shown being recovered from a cache of explosives of an anti-government militia in May 2022.[20]

Egyptian officials have never responded to requests from The New York Times, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), HRW, Amnesty International, and others to either confirm or deny claims that the Egyptian Armed Forces have used cluster munitions in northern Sinai.[21]

Alleged use outside of Egypt

A November 2017 video released by the Egyptian Army shows a reported attack by the Egyptian Air Force on a convoy of trucks in Libya, in which cluster munitions may have been used.[22]

Policy

The Arab Republic of Egypt has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Egypt repeated its long-held position opposing the treaty at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in November 2021, calling antipersonnel landmines a key means for securing its borders and criticizing the treaty for not, in its view, assigning responsibility for clearance to those who laid the mines in the past.[1]

Egypt participated as an observer at several meetings of the Ottawa Process that created the convention, including the Oslo negotiations, but did not adopt the Mine Ban Treaty or attend the December 1997 signing conference.

Egypt has participated as an observer at several meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty, most recently the Fourth Review Conference in Oslo in November 2019.[2]

Egypt did not attend the treaty’s Nineteenth Meeting of States Parties, held virtually in November 2021, or the intersessional meetings held in Geneva in June 2022.

Egypt abstained from voting on UNGA Resolution 76/26 on 6 December 2021, which supported the full universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. Egypt has abstained from the vote on the annual resolution promoting the treaty in all previous years.[3]

Egypt signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1981 but has never ratified it. Egypt is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Egypt has repeatedly stated that it ended its production of antipersonnel mines in 1988 and stopped exporting them in 1984.[4]

In November 2020, Egypt reiterated that it had “imposed a moratorium on its capacity to produce and export landmines since the 1980s.”[5] Since 2004, Egyptian officials have stated that the country has imposed a moratorium on the export and production of antipersonnel mines.[6]

Egypt has never responded to repeated requests from the Monitor to make its stated position formal and public in writing.

In 2017, Egypt’s Ministry of Military Production advertised antipersonnel landmines made by Heliopolis for sale at its display at the International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) arms fair in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).[7]

Egypt is believed to possess a large stockpile of antipersonnel mines, but no details are available on the size and composition of the stockpile, as it is considered a state secret.

Use

There is no evidence that Egypt’s armed forces have used antipersonnel mines in recent years. In 2015, a military spokesperson reportedly stated that the Egyptian Army had emplaced landmines around its outposts in Sinai.[8]

Use by non-state armed groups

Media reports indicate new use of improvised antipersonnel landmines by militants linked to the Islamic State in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula during 2020–2022. In early 2022, the Egyptian Army reportedly recovered pressure plate initiated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) emplaced in houses, and also found them in arms caches.[9] A photograph shared on social media in April 2022 allegedly shows IEDs left by Islamic State militants in Sinai, which were recovered and cleared by the Egyptian army.[10] A similar video, posted in May 2022, shows Egyptian military forces dismantling a landmine emplaced by the Islamic State south of Rahaf in the Sinai Peninsula.[11] In May 2020 and March 2022, the Sinai Tribes Union issued statements on the death of Tarabin tribesmen due to mines that it said were laid by a group associated with the Islamic State.

Notes: ERW = explosive remnants of war.

Contamination

The Arab Republic of Egypt is contaminated with mines in the Western Desert, which date from the Second World War, and in the Sinai Peninsula and Eastern Desert, which are a legacy of wars with Israel between 1956 and 1973. Some recent mine incidents in Sinai may have been caused by mines emplaced by anti-government jihadist groups.[1] It was reported in August 2016 that Islamic State had been digging up Second World War-era landmines and re-using them.[2] The precise extent of contamination across the country remains unknown and past estimates have been unreliable.

Most of the Western Desert contamination occurred around the location of Second World War battles that took place between the Quattara depression and Alamein on the Mediterranean coast. Other affected areas lie around the city of Marsa Matrouh and at Sallum near the Libyan border. In November 2016, during a ceremony to mark the opening of a new prosthetic limb center, the United Kingdom’s (UK) Ambassador to Egypt announced that all the maps of minefields laid by British and Allied forces during World War II had been handed over.[3] According to the head of the military engineering department, though, the British minefield maps were “sketch maps” and most of the mines were buried randomly. In January 2018, the British Member of Parliament Daniel Kawczynski put a written question to the UK Secretary of State for International Development asking whether her department was taking steps to assist with the mapping and disposal of Second World War mines in the Tobruk and El Alamein regions. The UK reiterated that maps of minefield locations had been provided to the Egyptian authorities and that, since 2006, through multilateral funding along with other donors (including Germany, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States), the UK had funded clearance of 130,446 acres of land around El Alamein.[4]

In October 2017, it was reported by the European Union’s (EU) ambassador to Egypt that 2,680km² of land in the North West Coast was estimated to still be contaminated.[5]

In August 2016, it was reported that Islamic State had been harvesting the explosives from World War II mines still uncleared in Egypt. According to Ambassador Fathy el-Shazly, formerly the head of Egypt’s Executive Secretariat for Mine Clearance, “We’ve had at least 10 reports from the military of terrorists using old mines. Even now, these things trouble us in different ways.”[6] These findings were reiterated in June 2017 at a UN Security Council briefing when Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the UN Amr Abdel-Latif Abul Atta stated that “abandoned mines and explosive remnants of wars have become a source of access for armed movements and terrorists to find materials for manufacturing improvised explosive devices.”[7] It was reported in January 2018 that Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM), which pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2014, has been using old mines and caches of explosives left in Sinai to produce different types of explosive devices. There were at least five major attacks by terrorist groups using such devices in Egypt in 2017.[8]

Program Management

In 2017, as in previous years, the mine action program in Egypt was not functioning effectively.

The second phase of a joint project between the Egyptian government and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), “Support the North West Coast Development Plan and Mine Action Program: Mine Action,” ended in 2017. The project provided for creation of an Executive Secretariat for Mine Clearance and the Development of the North West Coast within the Ministry of Planning to coordinate implementation of the North West Coast Development Plan through a partnership consisting of the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Defense, and the UNDP. The project foresaw demining based on humanitarian and development needs, mine risk education, and assistance to mine victims.[9]

It was reported that a total area of 1,096 km² has been “cleared” since the beginning of the project in 2009 and that there are plans to establish an eco-oriented city, the “New City of Alamein.”[10]

The first phase concluded in 2014. The Director of the Executive Secretariat acknowledged that the results had been “disappointing,” due to instability in the country.[11] A second phase, funded by the EU, the UNDP, and USAID, ended in 2017. In August 2017, it was reported that negotiations had begun on a third phase of the project to allocate $5 million to clear the rest of the northern coast and the Sinai Peninsula.[12]

Funding was also used for capacity-building, establishing a quality management unit, and supporting the creation of the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database.

Clearance was conducted using both manual and mechanical demining techniques. The executive secretariat is said to have procured 461 mine detectors, 355 demining suits and protective helmets, one Casspir armored vehicle with the “Mine Lab” detecting device, and five Armtrac vehicles.[13]

In January 2017, Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr announced the establishment of the National Center for Landmine Action and Sustainable Development. Minister Nasr said that the center would begin clearing 600km² in the northern coast and would also establish infrastructure after clearance was completed.[14]

Operators

Mine clearance in Egypt is conducted by the Egyptian Army Corps of Engineers, part of the Egyptian armed forces.

The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) provides support to the executive secretariat and the Army Corps of Engineers in information management and operations. This support includes revision and introduction of national standard operating procedures for mine action in 2014, advice on land release methodology and techniques, and assistance to the UNDP in improving mechanical mine action.[15]

As noted above, the UNDP is a partner in Egypt’s national demining and development program.

Land Release

Egypt has not reported with any credibility on its release of mined areas in recent years.

The Monitor acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review (www.mineactionreview.org), which has conducted the primary mine action research in 2018 and shared all its country-level landmine reports (from“Clearing the Mines 2018”) and country-level cluster munition reports (from “Clearing Cluster Munition Remnants 2018”) with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.

The mine action program in the Arab Republic of Egypt has been stalled since 2009 following the completion of the first phase of a UNDP-supported mine action program (“Support to the North West Coast Development Plan and Mine Action Program”). The second phase of the project—which aims to expand mine clearance operations, facilitate development in the region, reintegrate mine victims, strengthen the national mine action capacity, and assist with resource mobilization efforts—was supposed to start in 2011, but was subject to numerous delays due to lack of funding and political events in Egypt.[1] Finally, phase II was launched in October 2014 with new support (US$6.3 million) provided by the European Union (EU).[2]

In 2015, New Zealand was Egypt’s sole international mine action donor, contributing some NZ$600,000 ($420,000) through the UNDP.[3]

Since 2012, Egypt has not reported any contributions to its own mine action program. The Egyptian army conducts all demining, and no costs associated with demining by the military are publicly available.  

From 2011–2015, international contributions totaled some $9.6 million, 65% of which was provided in 2014.

Summary of contributions: 2011–2015[4]

Several sources have estimated the total number of known casualties to be around 8,000 in the Arab Republic of Egypt. However, the period of data collection for these statistics is not reported. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported in 2006 that there had been 8,313 mine casualties (696 people killed; 7,617 injured; 5,017 were civilians) in the Western Desert since 1982.[1] Almost identical statistics were reported in 1998, but for the period 1945–1996.[2]

By May 2015, detailed information had been collected on 761 survivors in the Matruh governorate.[3] This database was believed to include information on 91–95% of all mine/ERW survivors in the governorate.[4] No data was available on survivors based outside of Matruh and no updates had been announced since 2015.

Through the end of 2016 the National Committee for Supervising the Demining of the North West Coast was responsible for the coordination of victim assistance.[5] In January 2017, Egypt established a new governmental agency for mine action including victim assistance, the National Center for Mine Action and Sustainable Development,to replace the Executive Committee for Supervising Mine Clearance and Development of the North West Coast, established in 2005.[6] Victim assistance activities have been restricted to the Matruh governorate and there was no victim assistance coordination for the rest of Egypt.[7]

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Solidarity shared responsibility for protecting the rights of all persons with disabilities in Egypt.[8]

In 2015, the UNDP, in partnership with the Ministry of International Cooperation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Defense, launched the second phase of “Support to the North West Coast Development Plan and Relevant Mine Action,” which included victim assistance activities.[9] In 2015, the Executive Secretariat reported that 259 survivors received prostheses under these projects.[10]

In October 2016, the Ministry of International Cooperation, the European Union (EU) Delegation to Egypt, and the UNDP inaugurated the EU-funded Artificial Limbs Center in Marsa Matrouh. The center is the first prosthetics facility in the North-West Coast area and was built to serve the population of Matrouh governorate and its neighboring areas.[11] The UNDP reported that the opening of the center was one of the major accomplishments of the project “Support to the North West Coast Development Plan and Relevant Mine Action: Phase II.”[12]

While the constitution states that all citizens are equal, there is no explicit prohibition on discrimination. Egypt had no legislation prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities in education, access to healthcare, or the provision of other state services, nor are there laws mandating access to buildings or transportation. Discrimination remained widespread. Transport on state-owned mass transit buses was free for persons with disabilities, but the buses were not wheelchair-accessible, and access required assistance from others. Persons with disabilities received special subsidies to purchase household products, wheelchairs, and prosthetic devices.[13]

Egypt ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 14 April 2008.