Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline: 1 February 2020
(Not on track to meet deadline)

Recommendations for action

• Greater priority needs to be afforded to demining in Eritrea. The authorities should ensure that units are not reoriented to other tasks but focus on survey and clearance operations for humanitarian purposes.
• Eritrea should urgently submit an up-to-date list of all known or suspected areas containing antipersonnel mines and a detailed timeline of activities planned under its Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 extension request, including annual projections of areas to be addressed and a corresponding budget.
• Eritrea should submit its outstanding annual Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 transparency report, which was due by 30 April 2015.

Contamination

The State of Eritrea is affected by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) dating back to World War II, but largely as the result of the struggle for independence in 1962–1991 and its armed conflict with Ethiopia in 1998–2000.

The last estimate of mine contamination in Eritrea dates back to the end of 2013, when Eritrea reported that 434 mined areas remained over an estimated 33.4km².[1] This is a two-thirds reduction on the earlier estimate of 99km² in June 2011,[2] and significantly lower than the 129km² identified by the 2004 landmine impact survey.[3]

Suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) by region as of end 2013[4]

Eritrea also remains contaminated with other ERW, possibly including cluster munition remnants. The majority of unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination is in the former Temporary Security Zone (TSZ), where the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) Mine Action Coordination Centre (MACC) found ordnance primarily along the trench lines.[5] ERW in Eritrea may also include items dating back to the Italian invasion prior to World War II.[6]

Antipersonnel mine and other ERW contamination is reported to negatively affect socio-economic conditions in Eritrea, blocking access to agricultural and pastoral land vital to farmers and animal herders and preventing the implementation of construction and development projects, including roads, schools, and clinics.[7] 

Program Management 

The Eritrean Demining Authority (EDA), established in July 2002, is responsible for policy development, regulation of mine action, and implementation of mine clearance operations. The EDA reports directly to the Office of the President. 

Demining is primarily conducted by the engineering units of the Eritrean defense forces under the supervision of EDA, which also carries out quality assurance and quality control in accordance with Eritrea’s National Mine Action Standards.[8] According to its second Article 5 deadline extension request, submitted in January 2014, Eritrea planned to deploy “at least” five demining teams during its second extension period, the same number as then deployed, but might increase the number if adequate financial and logistical support were found.[9] However, Eritrea’s demining units may be re-tasked toward infrastructure building, such as construction of roads and dams “at any point.”[10] Following expulsion of international NGOs in 2005, Eritrea does not allow any international humanitarian demining operators to conduct survey or clearance in Eritrea.

Land Release

Under its 2014 extension request, Eritrea projected that up to 15.4km² of mined area could be cleared within five years. It reported that 67.3km² of contaminated area had been cancelled through non-technical survey and that 5.7km² was cleared over 38 mined areas in 2011–2013.[11] 

Eritrea has not provided any updates to States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty nor responded to NPA requests for information on any mine action activities undertaken in 2014, including on any survey activities carried out in 2014. Previously, in 2013, Eritrea reported release of 157 SHAs totaling 33.5km², leaving 385 mined areas of close to 24.5km² to be surveyed.[12] Forty-nine new mined areas with a total size of 9km² were discovered in five of the country’s six regions during non-technical survey in 2013 (the regions of Anseba, Debub, Gash Barka, Maakel, and Semienawi Keih Bahri).[13]

Likewise, Eritrea has not made public any information on any mine clearance undertaken in 2014. In 2013, Eritrea stated it cleared approximately 2.26km² of mined area, almost twice the amount cleared in 2012 (1.2km²).[14] The number of antipersonnel and antivehicle mines destroyed in 2013 has not been reported. 

Article 5 Compliance 

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the three-year extension granted by States Parties in 2011), Eritrea is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 February 2020. It is not on track to meet this deadline.

In January 2014, Eritrea submitted a second Article 5 deadline extension request seeking a further five years to continue clearance and complete resurvey of SHAs, but not to fulfil its clearance obligations under the treaty. In June 2014, States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty granted Eritrea its extension request until 2020, but noted that five additional years beyond Eritrea’s previous February 2015 deadline “appeared to be a long period of time to meet this objective.”[15]

Resurvey during the second extension period is planned to involve both technical and non-technical survey of all remaining mined areas across six regions. Resurvey is planned to run concurrently with clearance in priority areas in the Anseba, Maakel, and Semienawi Keih Bahri regions.[16]

Based on a predicted clearance rate of 384,000m² per team per year and 1.92km² per five teams per year, Eritrea has estimated that five teams operating at this optimum pace could clear almost 15.4km² in the five-year period.[17] However, this clearance rate was acknowledged by Eritrea as “ambitious” due to the “inevitable collaboration…of the demining teams with the survey teams.” In addition, while Eritrea seems to have set reasonable estimates for its clearance rates that approximately match its progress in previous years with similar capacity, this accounts for only less than half of the total area Eritrea has estimated as requiring either clearance or resurvey (33.5km²), leaving approximately 18.1km² unaccounted for in the workplan.[18] 

Eritrea projected that costs for the extension period will amount to more than US$7 million, all to be raised nationally.[19] During 2011–2013, Eritrea managed to raise only $257,000 annually. As of December 2013, Eritrea had not received international funding for mine clearance and in its statement at the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties, Eritrea said that progress in clearing mines would be slow because it “had limited resources and capacity of one small poor nation.”[20] It is therefore unclear how Eritrea intends to raise the finances necessary for its survey and clearance activities, particularly in light of its policy not to accept international technical assistance. 

In April 2014, at the Mine Ban Treaty Intersessional Meetings, Eritrea stated that the extension period was designed to gain greater clarity about its mine problem, at which point Eritrea “could plan and think about the financial resources to be allocated for mine action.”[21] It also stated that Eritrea “won’t complete clearance in the next five years,” and will likely require a third extension.[22]

Mine clearance in 2010–2014[23]

Note: N/R = Not reported