Notes: ERW = explosive remnants of war; CHA = confirmed hazardous area; SHA = suspected hazardous area.

Contamination

The Republic of Mozambique formally declared compliance with its Article 5 obligations at the Mine Ban Treaty Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties in December 2015, after announcing its completion of antipersonnel mine clearance on 17 September 2015.[1] In a public ceremony, Oldemiro Baloi, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, declared the country to be free of the “threat” of mines following survey and clearance of more than 3,000 areas across a total of more than 55km² in 2008–2014 and the destruction of more than 86,000 antipersonnel mines.[2]

In March 2016, following two suspected mine incidents, the international demining NGO APOPO identified a mined area covering 63,000m² during non-technical survey in Nangade district, Cabo Delgado province, near the border with Tanzania.[3] In early 2017, NPA identified two further mined areas nearby, one covering 14,000m² and a second with an estimated size of 8,000m².[4] Clearance of all areas was completed in May 2017.[5]

According to the IND, four small suspected mined areas with a combined size of 1,881m²remain underwater in Inhambane province.[6] At the intersessional meetings in June 2018, Mozambique again mentioned that the areas remained submerged and that regular monitoring was ongoing. This included a visit by IND monitoring teams during the first week of June. It reiterated its commitment that the remaining areas would be addressed once the water level had receded and dry access could be gained.[7]

Mozambique previously reported the existence of “suspended” mined areas in its declaration of completion of Article 5 obligations submitted in December 2015, which it defined as “suspected hazard areas that remain seasonally or permanently submerged under water in Inhambane province.” It further stated that all suspended areas “were subjected to technical survey and clearance up to the water line during the annual dry season with no direct evidence found to confirm the presence of mines in any of these areas. Nevertheless the portion of the SHA [suspected hazardous area] that remains underwater will be marked and regularly monitored to confirm if the area ever dries enough to allow further technical survey.”[8] In June 2018, Mozambique noted that it “should have made it more clear, in its Completion Declaration, that there may be very little probability that mines would be detected in those submerged areas.”[9]

Mined areas by province (as of June 2018)[10]

Mozambique was contaminated with mines, mostly antipersonnel, as a legacy of nearly 30 years of conflict that ended in 1992. It also has residual contamination from ERW, including UXO.

Program Management

There is no national mine action authority as such in Mozambique. The IND serves as the national mine action center in Mozambique, reporting to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Provincial demining commissions have been created to assist in planning mine action operations. Due to a growing national economic crisis, the government put in place strict austerity measures that saw financial support to the IND reduced drastically, resulting in the downsizing of the institution, with only key staff remaining at the start of 2017, and continuing downsizing occurring during the year.[11] The IND emphasized that with the reduction in financial support from the government, its activities and outreach would be severely affected in 2018.[12]

Strategic planning

In June 2018, Mozambique reported that a government strategy to develop a sustainable national capacity to address residual mine and ERW contamination had been developed and was being implemented with the training of national police units and military personnel. Under the strategy, police units in both the District and Provincial Police Commands were being trained to respond to and destroy any items of UXO and isolated mines reported, and to provide community awareness-raising on the threat of residual contamination.[13] Any additional mined areas discovered would be responsibility of the Mozambique armed forces’ specialized regional demining units. If, however, the scale of contamination cannot be addressed by the capacity and resources of the authorities, Mozambique will notify States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty and request assistance, stating that, as per the strategy, its residual institutional capacity must not only be ready to address contamination, but also to be an interlocutor with States Parties, if additional mined areas are discovered.[14]

Information management

Concerns were raised during the phasing out of Mozambique’s national mine action program, specifically includingdifficulties in digitalizing demining completion reports from NGO operators and the need for a back-up system to avoid the loss of data.[15] The transfer of the database, along with information management staff, to the Ministry of Land, Environment, and Rural Development and the proposed transfer of database copies for storage with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of State Administration, had still to occur as of September 2018.[16]

Operators

From February to the end of May 2017, NPA deployed two teams of a total of 16 deminers to conduct manual clearance of the mined area identified in Nangade. It had remained in Mozambique in 2016 to clear Mozambique’s last remaining cluster munition remnant contamination.[17]

In 2016, APOPO maintained a presence of some 50 staff, primarily to clear ammunition around the Malhazine weapons depot in Maputo city. It seconded personnel for ad hocsurvey, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), and clearance of residual risk tasks, on a call-out basis.[18] In April 2017, APOPO closed its program in Mozambique after it was unable to secure funding to complete its ammunition clearance operations at the Malhazine weapons depot complex.[19]

Following an official handover ceremony on 1 June 2017, NPA demobilized its mine clearance operations in Nangade district. It stated that no new reports of suspected mined areas in the district, or in the wider Cabo Delgado province, were received.[20]

Land Release

NPA began clearance activities on the 63,000m² area at Mungano in Nangade on 1 February 2017. Following completion of clearance of that mined area, further investigation by technical survey identified two additional mined areas, one with a size of 14,000m² in Chicamba village, approximately 3.5km from Mungano, and a second area with a size of 8,000m², some 500 meters from the larger minefield at Mungano, which, according to NPA, formed part of an old mine belt at the Mozambique–Tanzania border.[21] Clearance of all areas was completed on 29 May 2017, with a total of 138,958m²released, including 7,537m² by manual clearance and 27,885m² by technical survey, with the destruction of 115 antipersonnel mines and three items of UXO.[22]

The mined area identified in Nangade district had both a social and economic impact on the local border community, whose economic activity primarily consists of small scale cross-border trade on a key transit route between Tanzania and Mozambique.[23] Clearance of the mined area ensures safe passage of individuals between the two countries, and for the community of Mungano, the nearest settlement to the minefield, frees extra land for cultivation, and allows children to attend the Mungano primary school, located only 20 meters from the minefield, without the fear of landmines.[24]

Article 5 Compliance

On 1 December 2015, at the Mine Ban Treaty Fourteenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva, Mozambique officially declared completion of its Article 5 obligations to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control. However, subsequently three further mined area were identified. These areas were cleared by May 2017.

Mozambique stated in its declaration of completion of its Article 5 obligations that if previously unknown areas of mine contamination were subsequently discovered, it would:

• Immediately inform States Parties of any discovery and report any mined areas in accordance with its Article 7 transparency obligations and at Mine Ban Treaty meetings;
• Ensure the effective exclusion of civilians from any contaminated areas;
• Destroy all antipersonnel mine contamination as soon as possible; and
• If it cannot destroy all contamination in the mined area before the next Meeting of States Parties, submit a request for another extended Article 5 clearance deadline in accordance with its obligations as a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.[25]

While noting that it had not followed the course indicated in its declaration of completion by failing to inform Mine Ban Treaty States Parties of the discovery of additional contamination at the subsequent Meeting of States Parties in December 2016, or to submit a request for another extended Article 5 clearance deadline, Mozambique reported in detail on the discovery of the mined area in Nangade in its Article 7 report submitted in April 2017 and informed States Parties of its identification and clearance in June 2017, at the intersessional meetings.[26] As noted above, Mozambique also announced that the IND would continue to assess the status of the remaining four submerged mined areas in Inhambane province and clear them once dry access could be gained.[27] The IND reported visiting the areas in June 2017 and again in June 2018, and confirmed they remained underwater and inaccessible for operations.[28]

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.