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DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
PERFORMANCE COMMENTARY
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continued to move towards completing clearance of all areas
contaminated by cluster munition remnants (CMR) in 2015, although the operational progress was not matched
by a corresponding sense of urgency by the national mine action authorities.
PROGRAMME PERFORMANCE 2015 2014
Problem understood 8 8
Target date for completion of cluster munition clearance 7 7
Targeted clearance 7 7
Effi cient clearance 7 7
National funding of programme 3 4
Timely clearance 5 5
Land-release system in place 7 7
National mine action standards 6 7
Reporting on progress 3 3
Improving performance 7 7
PERFORMANCE SCORE: AVERAGE 6.0 6.2
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CLUSTER MUNITION REMNANTS - SIGNATORY STATES
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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION
> The DRC should complete clearance of all CMR-contaminated areas by the end of 2016, the deadline it set in
its strategic mine action plan.
> The DRC should ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) as a matter of priority.
> Greater efforts should be made to ensure the national mine action database is accurate, up to date, and
effectively managed by the national authorities.
> Mine action data should be recorded and reported according to International Mine Action Standards (IMAS)
land release terminology.
CONTAMINATION
At the end of 2015, the DRC had four remaining areas
with a total size of 3,840m2 confi rmed to contain CMR.
Contamination is in Equateur province in the north-east
of the country.1 The DRC identifi ed the areas, all of which
are believed to contain BL755 submunitions, in a national
survey conducted in 2013.2
According to Mines Advisory Group (MAG), CMR
contamination has impeded agriculture and limited
freedom of movement. MAG reported that its clearance
of CMR and other unexploded ordnance (UXO) in areas
of former Equateur and Katanga provinces in 2015
had increased access to fi rewood, enabled use of
previously restricted land and new agricultural areas,
and facilitated access to remote villages. MAG also
completed clearance of a CMR strike very near to the only
hospital in Moba, in what was Katanga province (renamed
Tanganyika province as at July 2015).3
Other ERW and LandminesThe DRC is also affected by other explosive remnants of
war (ERW) and a small number of landmines, as a result
of years of confl ict involving neighbouring states, militias,
and rebel groups. Successive confl icts have left the DRC
with UXO as well as signifi cant quantities of abandoned
explosive ordnance.4
1 Email from Colin Williams, Chief of Operations, UNMAS DRC, 6 May 2016.
2 Response to questionnaire by Colin Williams, UNMAS, 19 May 2015; and CCM Article 7 Report (for 2012 and 2013), Form F.
3 Email from Llewelyn Jones, Director of Programmes, MAG, 7 May 2016. On 9 January 2015, the National Assembly of the DRC passed a law which enacted
the proposed redistricting under the 2006 Constitution of the DRC’s 11 provinces into 25 provinces, plus Kinshasa. The area where MAG was operational
in Katanga province was renamed as Tanganyka province after the redistricting began to be implemented in July 2015. Christophe Rigaud, “RDC: le
découpage territorial a voté à l’Assemblée” (“DRC: territorial subdivision voted on at the Assembly”), Afrikarabia, 10 January 2015, at: http://afrikarabia.
com/wordpress/rdc-le-decoupage-territorial-vote-a-lassemblee/; and email from Fabienne Chassagneux, Regional Director, West and Central Africa,
MAG, 15 July 2016.
4 UNMAS, “Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Support to UN Country Team and the Government”, updated January 2015, at: http://www.mineaction.
org/programmes/drc.
5 Response to Cluster Munition Monitor questionnaire by Michelle Healy, UNMACC, 29 April 2013.
6 Email from Colin Williams, UNMAS, 29 May 2015; and UNMAS, “DRC, Support to UN Country Team and the Government”.
7 UNMAS, “About UNMAS Support of One UN and the GODRC”, March 2016, at: http://www.mineaction.org/print/programmes/drc.
8 UNMAS, “DRC, Overview”, updated August 2013.
9 UN Security Council Resolution 1925, 28 May 2010.
10 UN Security Council Resolution 2098, 28 March 2013.
11 UNMAS, “DRC: Support to UN Country Team and the Government”.
12 UN Security Council Resolution 2147, 28 March 2014; and UNMAS, “DRC Overview”, updated April 2014, at: http://www.mineaction.org/programmes/drc.
PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT
The Congolese Mine Action Centre (Centre Congolais
de Lutte Antimines, CCLAM) was established in 2012
with support from the United Nations Mine Action
Coordination Centre (UNMACC) and the UN Mine Action
Service (UNMAS).5 Since that time, UNMAS has provided
capacity building support to CCLAM for its operations
with a goal of full transition of all coordination activities to
the Centre by the end of 2016.6 UNMAS has reported that
the transfer of responsibility to CCLAM for coordinating
mine action activities was completed in early 2016.7 Previously, UNMACC, established in 2002 by UNMAS,
coordinated mine action operations through offi ces in
the capital, Kinshasa, and in Goma, Kalemie, Kananga,
Kisangani, and Mbandaka.8 UNMACC was part of
the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO)
peacekeeping mission. UN Security Council Resolution
1925 mandated UNMACC to strengthen national mine
action capacities and support reconstruction through
road and infrastructure clearance.9
In March 2013, Security Council Resolution 2098 called
for demining activities to be transferred to the UN
Country Team and the Congolese authorities.10 As a
consequence, UNMAS operated two separate projects
after splitting its activities between, on the one hand,
support for the government of the DRC and its in-country
team, and, on the other, its activities in support of
MONUSCO.11 In accordance with Resolution 2147 of
March 2014, demining is no longer included in
MONUSCO’s mandate.12
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13 DRC, “Plan Stratégique National de Lutte Antimines en République Démocratique du Congo, 2012–2016” (“National Mine Action Strategic Plan in DRC,
2012–2016”), Kinshasa, November 2011, p. 28, at: http://www.macc- drc.org/IMG/pdf/Plan_strategique_LAM_2012-2016.pdf.
14 Email from Julien Kempeneers, Deputy Desk Offi cer, Mine Action Department, HI, 14 April 2016.
15 Email from Colin Williams, UNMAS, 3 June 2015.
16 Responses to questionnaire by Pehr Lodhammar, NPA, 18 May 2015; Julia Wittig, Programme Offi cer, MAG, 29 May 2015; and Johan Strydom, Project
Manager DRC, Mechem, 13 May 2015.
17 Emails from Colin Williams, UNMAS, 6 May 2016; and Fabienne Chassagneux, MAG, 15 July 2016.
18 Email from Llewelyn Jones, MAG, 7 May 2016.
Strategic Planning
The DRC’s national mine action strategic plan for
2012–16 set the goal of completing clearance of all areas
contaminated with anti-personnel mines or unexploded
submunitions by the end of 2016.13
OperatorsFive international operators are accredited for mine
action in the DRC: DanChurchAid (DCA), Handicap
International (HI), MAG, Mechem, and Norwegian
People’s Aid (NPA), along with a national demining
organisation, AFRILAM.14 MAG was the only operator to
conduct detailed CMR survey and clearance activities
in the DRC in 2015. Throughout the year, it deployed
between two and four ten-strong technical teams,
depending on funding, as well as two community
liaison teams.15
Standards No developments were reported regarding mine action
standards or guidelines specifi c to CMR survey or
clearance in 2015. As at May 2016, National Technical
Standards and Guidelines for mine action had been
developed, but still not fi nalised. The draft version does
not contain CMR-specifi c provisions.16
Quality ManagementUNMAS and MAG reported that no external quality
assurance (QA)/quality control (QC) activities were
carried out on any CMR tasks in 2015, due to an inability
to travel to remote areas.17 MAG stated, however, that
in 2015 an internal QA/QC process was carried out twice
a week.18
Information ManagementThe CCLAM assumed responsibility from UNMAS for
information management in January 2016. Subsequently,
despite many years of capacity building support from
UNMAS, and from NPA in 2015, data from the national
mine action database in response to research queries
showed limited signs of improvement, but continued to
vary signifi cantly from operators’ records, and in some
cases was partial or even unusable.
MAG deminer clearing land inside Moba Hospital, Tanganyika Province. © MAG DRC
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Operator SHAs cancelled Areas confi rmed Area confi rmed (m²)
MAG (Katanga/Tanganyika) 4 1 7,772
MAG (Equateur) 61 1 68,073
Totals 65 2 75,845
Table 1: CMR survey in 201521
OperatorAreas
clearedAreas
cleared (m²)Submunitions
destroyedAPM
destroyedUXO
destroyed
MAG (Katanga/Tanganyika) 1 7,772 4 1 226
MAG (Equateur) 1 68,073 61 0 18
Totals 2 75,845 65 1 244
Table 2: Clearance of CMR-contaminated areas in 201527
APM = Anti-personnel mines
19 Ibid.; and response to questionnaire by Julia Wittig, MAG, 29 May 2015.
20 Email from Llewelyn Jones, MAG, 7 May 2016.
21 Ibid. UNMAS did not report any data for CMR survey in DRC in 2015. UNMAS informed Mine Action Review and Cluster Munition Monitor “information is
taken from our data base following weekly reports received from MAG so may not be completely accurate or complete”, and indicated data provided by
MAG should be reported instead. Emails from Colin Williams, UNMAS, 6 and 26 May 2016.
22 Email from Llewelyn Jones, MAG, 7 May 2016.
23 Response to questionnaire by Johan Petrus Botha, Technical Operations Manager, MAG, 1 June 2015.
24 Email from Pehr Lodhammar, NPA, 12 April 2016.
25 Email from Colin Williams, UNMAS, 6 May 2016.
26 Email from Pehr Lodhammar, NPA, 12 April 2016.
27 Email from Llewelyn Jones, MAG, 7 May 2016. UNMAS reported that MAG cleared one CMR-contaminated area with a total size of 58,685m2, destroying in
the process 55 submunitions, one anti-personnel mine, and 24 items of UXO. Emails from Colin Williams, UNMAS, 6 and 26 May 2016.
LAND RELEASE
The total amount of CMR-contaminated area released in 2015 was 0.075km2,
compared to 0.065km2 in 2014.19
Survey in 2015MAG reported cancelling 65 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) through
non-technical survey in 2015 and confi rming as hazardous two SHAs with
a total size of 75,845m2 in Katanga (Tanganyika) and Equateur provinces
(see Table 1).20
Clearance in 2015MAG cleared a total of 75,845m2 of CMR-contaminated area in 2015, the
majority of which — 68,073m2 — was in Equateur province, with a further
7,772m2 in Katanga/Tanganyika province, and destroyed a total of 65
submunitions (see Table 2).22 In 2014, MAG cleared 65,510m2 of CMR-
contaminated area, destroying 38 submunitions.23
In September 2015, NPA destroyed one BL755 submunition as part of an
explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) spot task in Tanganyika province.24
According to UNMAS, Mechem also destroyed two submunitions during
EOD spot tasks in 2015.25 NPA reported destroying a further two BL755
submunitions in Tanganyika province in February 2016.26
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ARTICLE 4 COMPLIANCE
As at 1 June 2016, the DRC was a signatory but not a state party to the
CCM. As such, it does not have a treaty-mandated deadline for clearance.
Nonetheless, the DRC has obligations under international human rights law
to clear CMR as soon as possible, in particular by virtue of its duty to protect
the right to life of every person under its jurisdiction.28
The DRC’s national mine action strategic plan for 2012–16 set the goal of
clearing all areas contaminated with anti-personnel mines or unexploded
submunitions by the end of 2016.29 The Government of the DRC, through
CCLAM, which operates under the Ministry of Interior, is seconding
members of the armed forces to MAG for CMR survey and clearance.30 MAG
stated that its priorities in 2016 would be to locate and confi rm all remaining
SHAs where CMR are suspected within North Ubangi and South Ubangi
provinces (formerly Equateur province).31 It did not expect its funding to
change in 2016.32
UNMAS has asserted that the DRC was on track to meet its national mine
action strategic plan goal of completing clearance of CMR contamination by
the end of 2016.33 In May 2016, however, MAG expressed doubts, noting that
remaining CMR-contaminated areas were very remote, with limited access
and diffi cult terrain.34
In March 2016, Japan donated US$2 million to UNMAS for mine action in
the DRC. UNMAS reported that the contribution represented 40% of the
DRC programme’s 2016 budgetary needs and would allow UNMAS to deploy
two MTTs in fi ve selected provinces where no explosive clearance capacity
currently exists.35 In May 2016, UNMAS reported that a total of US$2.45
million had been secured for demining activities in 2016, with additional
support from the Netherlands and Sweden, and in-kind support from
Switzerland.36 UNMAS pledged to continue to engage with donors to secure
additional funding.37
28 The DRC is a state party to the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 6(1) of which stipulates that: “Every human being has the
inherent right to life”. It is also a state party to the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Article 4 of which provides that “Every human
being shall be entitled to respect for his life and the integrity of his person”.
29 DRC, “National Mine Action Strategic Plan in DRC, 2012–2016”, Kinshasa, November 2011, p. 28.
30 Response to questionnaire by Julia Wittig, MAG, 29 May 2015.
31 Email from Llewelyn Jones, MAG, 7 May 2016.
32 Ibid.
33 Email from Colin Williams, UNMAS, 6 May 2016.
34 Email from Llewelyn Jones, MAG, 7 May 2016.
35 UNMAS, “The People of Japan Contributes $2 Million to support United Nations Mine Action Activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo”, Press
release, 18 March 2016.
36 UNMAS, “About UNMAS Support of One UN and the GODRC”, May 2016, at: http://www.mineaction.org/print/programmes/drc.
37 UNMAS, “The People of Japan Contributes $2 Million USD to support United Nations Mine Action Activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo”,
Press release, 18 March 2016, at: http://www.mineaction.org/sites/default/fi les/pr/Japan%20contributes%202M%20to%20UN%20mine%20action%20
2016.pdf.