Policy

The Federal Republic of Nigeria acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 27 September 2001, and the treaty entered into force for the country on 1 March 2002.

Nigeria has not enacted national implementing legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty, but has considered doing so in the past.[1] In 2006, Nigeria reported that an implementation bill was undergoing its first reading in the National Assembly.[2]

Nigeria has provided seven annual Article 7 transparency reports, but none since 2012. Nigeria has not heeded requests from States Parties to provide an updated annual report.[3]

Nigeria attended the Nineteenth Meeting of States Parties, held virtually in November 2021, but did not make any statement. During the meeting, States Parties granted Nigeria an extension to its Article 5 clearance deadline, which Nigeria said was necessary due to new contamination from improvised antipersonnel mines laid by non-state armed groups (NSAGs).

Nigeria has signed, but not ratified, both the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use

According to Nigeria, antipersonnel landmines were produced in the country the past, long before the adoption of the Mine Ban Treaty.[4]

Nigeria imported or otherwise acquired antipersonnel landmines in the past. In its initial Article 7 transparency report, submitted in 2004, it declared a stockpile of 3,364 Dimbat mines for research and training.[5] However, in 2005, Nigeria reported that all the mines retained for training had been destroyed.[6] In 2009, Nigeria reported that it had destroyed 9,786 stockpiled “British made AP [antipersonnel] landmines” in 2005 and retained another 3,364 mines for research and training.[7] In 2010, and again in 2012, Nigeria reported the retention of 3,364 “British and Czechoslovakian made AP Landmine[s],” but did not specify the types.[8]

There is no evidence to indicate that Nigerian government forces have used antipersonnel landmines since Nigeria signed the Mine Ban Treaty. In the past, antipersonnel mines were laid during the 1967–1970 Biafran Civil War. Nigeria has denied allegations that its Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) troops used antipersonnel mines in Liberia and Sierra Leone the 1990s.[9]

Production and use by non-state armed groups

Boko Haram and related NSAGs have made and emplaced victim-activated landmines and other improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in northeast Nigeria in recent years.

At the Fourth Review Conference in November 2019, Nigeria stated that the northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe were most affected by new use of antipersonnel mines.[10] A report by Mines Advisory Group (MAG) recorded 697 incidents involving improvised mines laid by Boko Haram, which resulted in 1,052 casualties across the three states between January 2016 and August 2020.[11] In 2017, the United Nations (UN) reported extensive use of simple pressure plate activated IEDs on main supply routes, and significant use of IEDs around Boko Haram-held areas.[12]

Multiple casualties were recorded in Nigeria in 2022 due to mines and IEDs laid by NSAGs, in particular Boko Haram and Islamic State-affiliated groups. Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) recorded 14 IED explosions in Nigeria from January–May 2022.[13]

On 21 February 2022, four security personnel were killed and one was injured when their vehicle hit a landmine in Niger state, in central Nigeria, according to local police, who attributed the attack to cattle thieves.[14] In April 2022, four hunters were killed and seven injured when an IED laid by insurgents exploded along the Borno highway.[15] On 7 May 2022, an IED laid by Boko Haram killed six of the group’s own fighters as they traveled through Borno state.[16]