Summary: State Party Mozambique ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 14 March 2011. It is reviewing existing legislation to see if additional measures are required to enforce the convention’s implementation. Mozambique has attended all of the convention’s meetings and has condemned new use of cluster munitions. It voted in favor of a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015.

In its initial transparency report for the convention provided in 2012, Mozambique confirmed it has never produced cluster munitions. Cluster munitions were used in Mozambique in the past. In September 2015, Mozambique announced the completion of the destruction of its stockpile of 299 cluster munitions and 9,708 submunitions, five years in advance of the treaty’s deadline. It is not retaining any cluster munitions for training or research.

Policy

The Republic of Mozambique signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 14 March 2011, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 September 2011.

Mozambique reported in June 2012 and again in February 2016 that it is undertaking a review of existing legislation to determine if new law is needed to enforce its implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1]

Mozambique submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention in June 2012. It has provided annual updated reports since then, most recently on 1 February 2016.[2]

Mozambique was one of three African states to participate in the launch of the Oslo Process in February 2007, which produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated actively throughout the Oslo Process and advocated forcefully for a comprehensive ban without exceptions, as well as for victim assistance and international cooperation and assistance.[3]

Mozambique engages actively in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015, where it announced the completion of the destruction of its stockpiled cluster munitions.

In an address to the high-level segment of the meeting, Mozambique’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Pedro Comissário, described universalization of the convention as “of paramount importance” and said, “we appeal to those states that have not yet ratified or acceded to this important legal instrument to ratify it or accede to it as a matter of urgency.”[4]

Mozambique has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention as well as intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011–2015. It has attended regional workshops on cluster munitions, most recently in Lusaka, Zambia in June 2015.[5]

Mozambique expressed sincere regret at new use of cluster munitions in 2013.[6]

On 7 December 2015, Mozambique voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[7] Mozambique has not elaborated its views on several important issues relating to the convention’s interpretation and implementation, such as the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, and the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions.

Mozambique is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

Mozambique has declared that it “never produced” cluster munitions and “therefore has no need to convert or decommission such facilities.”[8]

It is not clear who was responsible for using cluster munitions in Mozambique in the past. Clearance operators have discovered and destroyed cluster munition remnants, including submunitions from RBK-250 and CB-470 air-dropped bombs, in Tete, Manica, Gaza, and Maputo provinces.[9] In 2011, Mozambique requested that State Parties “provide any technical data on previous cluster munitions strikes within the territory of Mozambique that may be available in their military archives.”[10]

Stockpiling and destruction

Mozambique once stockpiled 299 cluster munitions and 9,708 submunitions:

• 199 RBK-250 PTAB-2.5M cluster bombs containing 8,358 submunitions;
• 9 RBK-250-275 AO-1SCh cluster bombs containing 1,350 submunitions.[11]

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Mozambique was required to destroy all its stockpiled cluster munitions as soon as possible but not later than 1 September 2019.

At the First Review Conference in September 2015, Mozambique announced the completion of its stockpile destruction, four years in advance of the treaty deadline.[12] It destroyed all of the stocks after the convention’s entry into force for Mozambique, between October 2014 and September 2015.

During 2015, Mozambique destroyed 208 cluster munitions and 5,970 submunitions:

• 109 RBK-250 PTAB-2.5M cluster bombs containing 4,620 submunitions;
• 9 RBK-250-275 AO-1SCh cluster bombs containing 1,350 submunitions.

In October–December 2014, Mozambique destroyed 90 RBK-250 PTAB-2.5 bombs and 3,738 PTAB submunitions.

In June 2014, the Ministry of Defence, National Demining Institute of Mozambique, and Norwegian People’s Aid dismantled and destroyed one RBK-250 PTAB-2.5 bomb containing 42 PTAB-2.5 submunitions as part of a joint project to safely destroy the stockpile.

Mozambique also reported the destruction of incendiary weapons in its Article 7 report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[13]

Retention

Mozambique has reported that it is not retaining any cluster munitions for training or research.[14]

Policy

The Republic of Mozambique signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 25 August 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Prior to 2012, Mozambique reported that draft implementing legislation was submitted to parliament for analysis and discussed by the Council of Ministers, but in 2012 changed the statement in its Article 7 transparency report to state that the government concluded that existing national legislation was sufficient to enforce the convention. It has not provided details about which specific components of existing legislation are applicable.

Mozambique regularly attends meetings of the treaty, most recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it provided general comments in support of the convention, as well as a statement on victim assistance.[1] Mozambique also attended the intersessional meetings of the treaty in Geneva in May 2019.

Mozambique served as President of the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. It has also served on the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance (2013–2014) and the Committee on Victim Assistance (2017–2018).

Mozambique is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons. Mozambique is party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, use, stockpile destruction, and retention

Mozambique has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines.[2] Throughout the civil war, antipersonnel mines were imported from many countries and used by different parties to the conflict. Landmines produced in the following countries have been found in Mozambique: USSR, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Yugoslavia, China, Italy, Belgium, France, UK, Portugal, US, South Africa, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, Brazil, and Austria.[3] Mozambique completed destruction of its stockpile of 37,318 antipersonnel mines on 28 February 2003, a few days before its treaty-mandated deadline.[4]

Mozambique retains 900 mines for training and research purposes.[5] It has previously reported up to 1,963 mines retained, though the numbers have been reported inconsistently.[6]

Mozambique has not yet provided details on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, as agreed by States Parties at the First Review Conference in December 2004.

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.

In 2015, five donors contributed US$3.1 million toward mine action activities in the Republic of Mozambique, down from more than $10 million in 2014.[1]

The largest contributions were provided by the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US), each contributing more than $1 million.

Despite the continued assistance from international donors over the past five years, with almost $50 million provided between 2011–2015, only a small proportion of the funding was earmarked for victim assistance and most funds were directed to clearance efforts. In 2015, only the Netherlands reported contributing some $330,000 to victim assistance through Handicap International.

International contributions: 2015[2]

In 2015, Mozambique contributed $1.3 million towards its mine action program.[3] Since 2011, the government of Mozambique has contributed more than $10 million, or 17% of its total mine action budget, while international contributions totaled nearly $50 million.

Summary of contributions: 2011–2015[4]

In 2017, the National Demining Institute (Instituto Nacional de Desminagem, IND) reported seven casualties as a result of three incidents in the Republic of Mozambique, in Cabo Delago, Maputo, and Zambézia.

The number of mine/ERW casualties has fluctuated over the last few years. In 2016, there were two casualties, six in 2015, eight in 2014, and 11 in 2013.[2] 

The total number of mine/ERW casualties in the Republic of Mozambique is unknown, but there were at least 2,443 through the end of 2017. The most extensive collection of casualty data to date remains the nationwide Landmine Impact Survey (LIS), completed in 2001; it recorded 2,145 mine/ERW casualties but did not provide a breakdown of those killed and injured.[3] An additional 298 casualties (112 killed; 183 injured; three unknown) were identified between 2002 and 2016.[4] 

Based on the results of an earlier national survey, the then-titled Ministry of Women and Social Action (Ministério da Mulher e da Acção Social, MMAS)[5] projected that there were some 10,900 landmine/ERW survivors in Mozambique through December 2011.[6] 

Cluster munition casualties

There were no reported cluster munitions casualties in 2017. There are known to be casualties from earlier incidents involving cluster munition remnants, although these were not distinguished from ERW in the data and would require a survey to identify them.[7] There were no known civilian casualties of cluster munitions attacks. Mozambique reported a belief that military casualties of cluster munition use might be assisted by the Ministry of Defense and that due to the nature of the military activity this information is not publicly available.[8] In the past, cluster munition casualties have been reported among non-state armed group members from Zimbabwe (when it was formerly Rhodesia) on the territory of Mozambique during cluster munition bombing.[9] 

Victim assistance action points

• Disseminate, budget for, and implement the Plan of Action for Victim Assistance (PAAV) among all government departments and ministries, as well as among provincial and local governments.
• Prioritize rehabilitation and economic inclusion assistance for the most vulnerable among the survivor population, based on physical, psychological, and socioeconomic needs.
• Rebuild prosthetic and orthopedic capacity in the country.
• Respond to the specific needs of women victims, the largest demographic group of victims as the members of affected families and communities.

Victim assistance planning and coordination[1]

International commitments and obligations

Laws and policies

The Republic of Mozambique is in the process of drafting a national law for the protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities. Disabled peoples’ organizations (DPOs) participated in the development of the law, which has been submitted for review by the national legislative assembly.[2]

Major Developments in 2017–2018

The Department for Persons with Disabilities reported insufficient human and financial resources to support the needs of persons with disabilities in Mozambique and noted that the country needs international support for medical care, rehabilitation, and other specialized services. The department also reported that coordination mechanisms were weak and information sharing between actors and implementers is insufficient to facilitate referrals.[3]

Peace talks between the government of Mozambique and the Mozambique National Resistance Movement (Resistência Nacional Moçambicana, RENAMO) that began in 2016 resulted in a ceasefire in 2017, allowing displaced persons from central Mozambique, who had been highly impacted by landmines, to return to their homes.[4]

Netherlands Leprosy Relief (NLR) Mozambique identified two provinces, Nampula and Niassa (both have been mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) affected, the latter being one of the seven provinces where cluster munitions had been used) for disabled-inclusive communities pilot projects. Two DPOs, Mozambican Association for the Disabled (Associação dos Deficientes Moçambicanos Associações (ADEMO) and Fórum das Associações dos Deficientes de Moçambique (FAMOD), were engaged as partners to pilot the disability-inclusive communities. NLR staff from Mozambique and ADEMO staff were trained in Indonesia on the use of participatory tools for disability inclusiveness. The Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Affairs committed to working with NLR on its implementation of the projects.[5]

Needs assessment

No needs assessments were conducted in 2017.[6] A 2013 “Needs and Capacities Assessment Report,” drafted by the National Director of Social Action within the Ministry of Woman and Social Action, remains unpublished.[7]

FAMOD, an umbrella group that brings together several DPOs, publicly declared that the 2017 General Population and Housing Census discriminated against persons with disabilities by excluding them entirely from the census. The census questionnaire did not contain any specific questions about disability, with the excuse that not all persons with disabilities could have the process made accessible.[8]

Medical care and rehabilitation

Four primary-care facilities in central Mozambique were renovated after the ceasefire declared by RENAMO. RAVIM continues to refer survivors and other persons with disabilities to the orthopedic center in Maputo, but reports that survivors have difficulty accessing services as the center lacks the resources to provide for walk-in patients without appointments. RAVIM also reports a general lack of medication, especially anti-retroviral medications for persons living with HIV/AIDS.[9] Surgical services are also unavailable for post-injury care.[10]

Physical rehabilitation and orthopedic services are limited especially outside of Maputo. Access to publicly-funded wheelchairs and assistive devices is limited by bureaucratic barriers.[11]

Socio-economic and psychosocial inclusion

No programs were reported for economic reintegration or psycho-social support. Persons with psycho-social impairments are routinely abandoned by their families at the only psychiatric hospital.[12]

Cross-cutting

UNICEF and Humanity and Inclusion (HI, formerly Handicap International) continue their partnership to address the needs of children with disabilities. The “Fair-n-Square” initiative supports Information, Orientation and Social Support Service (SIOAS) mobile teams, which identify children with disabilities and provide services, including assistive devices and physical modifications to structures to enable school attendance. SIOAS outreach teams operate in Maputo, Beira, and Matola cities.[13]

Victim assistance providers and activities[14]